Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .Diamonds may be the strongest known natural material, but researchers have just created some stiff competition.By firing a dime-sized graphite disk at a wall at 15,000 mph (24,100 km/h), scientists momentarily created a hexagonal diamond that is both stiffer and stronger than the natural, cubic kind. Hexagonal diamonds, also known as Lonsdaleite diamonds, are a special type of diamond with arranged in a hexagonal pattern. Formed when graphite is exposed to...…Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .Diamonds may be the strongest known natural material, but researchers have just created some stiff competition.By firing a dime-sized graphite disk at a wall at 15,000 mph (24,100 km/h), scientists momentarily created a hexagonal diamond that is both stiffer and stronger than the natural, cubic kind. Hexagonal diamonds, also known as Lonsdaleite diamonds, are a special type of diamond with arranged in a hexagonal pattern. Formed when graphite is exposed to...WW…

Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .When scientists recently X-rayed a fish's head, they found a gruesome stowaway: A "vampire" crustacean had devoured, then replaced, its host's tongue.The buglike isopod, also called a tongue biter or tongue-eating louse, keeps sucking its blood meals from a fish's tongue until the entire structure withers away. Then the true horror begins, as the parasite assumes the organ's place in the still-living fish's mouth.Biologist Kory Evans, an assistant professor in the...…Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .When scientists recently X-rayed a fish's head, they found a gruesome stowaway: A "vampire" crustacean had devoured, then replaced, its host's tongue.The buglike isopod, also called a tongue biter or tongue-eating louse, keeps sucking its blood meals from a fish's tongue until the entire structure withers away. Then the true horror begins, as the parasite assumes the organ's place in the still-living fish's mouth.Biologist Kory Evans, an assistant professor in the...WW…

Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .On Thursday (Feb. 13), the Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases revealed some of the first images of SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus that has sickened over 60,000 people and killed another 1,370 in the outbreak that began in Wuhan, China. Viruses are teeny-tiny infectious blobs that are made up of either DNA or RNA wrapped up inside a protein coat. They are too small to be seen by a typical light...…Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .On Thursday (Feb. 13), the Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases revealed some of the first images of SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus that has sickened over 60,000 people and killed another 1,370 in the outbreak that began in Wuhan, China. Viruses are teeny-tiny infectious blobs that are made up of either DNA or RNA wrapped up inside a protein coat. They are too small to be seen by a typical light...WW…

Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .is an enormous magnet, its iron-rich core creating a shield of that envelopes the planet —— well, almost. A "dent" in this magnetic field known as the South Atlantic Anomaly allows charged particles from the sun to dip closer to the planet in an area over South America and the Southern Atlantic Ocean. These particles, at the very least, can mess with instruments up in space. So NASA scientists and other researchers have no choice but to adapt to this hiccup in...…Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .is an enormous magnet, its iron-rich core creating a shield of that envelopes the planet —— well, almost. A "dent" in this magnetic field known as the South Atlantic Anomaly allows charged particles from the sun to dip closer to the planet in an area over South America and the Southern Atlantic Ocean. These particles, at the very least, can mess with instruments up in space. So NASA scientists and other researchers have no choice but to adapt to this hiccup in...WW…

Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .A British man who contracted the new on a business trip spread the virus to 11 other people from three countries, according to news reports.The man, who is in his 50s, had visited Singapore for a sales conference from Jan. 20 to Jan. 22, according to . A little more than 100 people attended the conference, and one participant was from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak of the new coronavirus, called , is thought to have originated. Officials believe the...…Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .A British man who contracted the new on a business trip spread the virus to 11 other people from three countries, according to news reports.The man, who is in his 50s, had visited Singapore for a sales conference from Jan. 20 to Jan. 22, according to . A little more than 100 people attended the conference, and one participant was from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak of the new coronavirus, called , is thought to have originated. Officials believe the...WW…

Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .The fossils of a newly discovered cousin — a vicious, meat-eating dinosaur with serrated teeth and a monstrous face that scientists are calling the "reaper of death," has been discovered in Alberta, Canada. At 79.5 million years old, Thanatotheristes degrootorum is the oldest known named tyrannosaur on record from northern North America, a region that includes Canada and the northern part of the western United States, said researchers of a new study on the...…Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .The fossils of a newly discovered cousin — a vicious, meat-eating dinosaur with serrated teeth and a monstrous face that scientists are calling the "reaper of death," has been discovered in Alberta, Canada. At 79.5 million years old, Thanatotheristes degrootorum is the oldest known named tyrannosaur on record from northern North America, a region that includes Canada and the northern part of the western United States, said researchers of a new study on the...WW…

Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .A man who lived in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas sometime between 1,000 and 1,400 years ago may have died from a horrible case of constipation, according to a study of his mummified remains. And during the painful months just prior to his death, he ate mainly grasshoppers, the study researchers found. Apparently, Chagas disease, which is caused by a parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi, had blocked up the man's . That blockage caused his colon to swell...…Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .A man who lived in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas sometime between 1,000 and 1,400 years ago may have died from a horrible case of constipation, according to a study of his mummified remains. And during the painful months just prior to his death, he ate mainly grasshoppers, the study researchers found. Apparently, Chagas disease, which is caused by a parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi, had blocked up the man's . That blockage caused his colon to swell...WW…

Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .Have you ever seen 40,000 shooting stars blaze across the sky at the same time?If you'd like to, the European Space Agency (ESA) is offering you two options: Either stare at the night sky for about half a million years as our drifts steadily through the (some patience required) — or, watch a new 60-second time-lapse simulation of the same thing, courtesy of the ESA's Gaia space observatory.In the new simulation, 40,000 stars — all located within 325 of Earth's sun —...…Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .Have you ever seen 40,000 shooting stars blaze across the sky at the same time?If you'd like to, the European Space Agency (ESA) is offering you two options: Either stare at the night sky for about half a million years as our drifts steadily through the (some patience required) — or, watch a new 60-second time-lapse simulation of the same thing, courtesy of the ESA's Gaia space observatory.In the new simulation, 40,000 stars — all located within 325 of Earth's sun —...WW…

Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .About 87 million miles (140 million kilometers) above the, an even larger, grander abyss cuts through the gut of the Red Planet. Known as Valles Marineris, this system of deep, vast canyons runs more than 2,500 miles (4,000 km) along the Martian equator, spanning nearly a quarter of the planet's circumference. This gash in the bedrock of is nearly 10 times as long as Earth's Grand Canyon and three times deeper, making it the single largest canyon in the — and,...…Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .About 87 million miles (140 million kilometers) above the, an even larger, grander abyss cuts through the gut of the Red Planet. Known as Valles Marineris, this system of deep, vast canyons runs more than 2,500 miles (4,000 km) along the Martian equator, spanning nearly a quarter of the planet's circumference. This gash in the bedrock of is nearly 10 times as long as Earth's Grand Canyon and three times deeper, making it the single largest canyon in the — and,...WW…

Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .Thirty thousand years ago, a dead star on the other side of the Milky Way belched out a powerful mixture of radio and X-ray energy. On April 28, 2020, that belch swept over Earth, triggering alarms at observatories around the world.The signal was there and gone in half a second, but that's all scientists needed to confirm they had detected something remarkable: the first ever "" (FRB) to emanate from a known star within the Milky Way, according to a study published...…Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .Thirty thousand years ago, a dead star on the other side of the Milky Way belched out a powerful mixture of radio and X-ray energy. On April 28, 2020, that belch swept over Earth, triggering alarms at observatories around the world.The signal was there and gone in half a second, but that's all scientists needed to confirm they had detected something remarkable: the first ever "" (FRB) to emanate from a known star within the Milky Way, according to a study published...WW…