Biology

Gemologist Finds Insect Trapped in Opal Instead of Amber

On a trip to Indonesia, gemologist Brian Berger purchased an opal that appeared to have an insect entombed inside. Insects trapped in amber are a common-enough sight, but in a slow-forming gemstone like opal? “Some researchers weren’t sure it was possible,” Berger told Gizmodo. “Now we know it’s possible. Is it likely? Extremely unlikely.” Berger…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

See What Trees Look Like to a Bird’s Ultraviolet-Sensitive Eyes

A bird’s-eye view can completely change your perspective on things. And I mean that literally. A pair of European researchers used a specially configured camera and took pictures of trees in order to see vegetation the way that birds do. They think that their results unveil the hidden importance of ultraviolet vision, and could offer…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Ancient Shark With Spaceship-Shaped Teeth Named After Vintage Video Game

A newly described freshwater shark from the Cretaceous Period had teeth that resembled the iconic Galaga video game spacefighter. Remarkably, the remains of this shark were found in the same pile of debris that contained Sue the T. rex—the largest and most complete fossil of the species ever found. Introducing Galagadon nordquistae, a newly discovered…

Biology George Dvorsky

Report: Evidence of Life Found in Lake Deep Beneath Antarctic Ice

Scientists have found the bodies of tardigrades, algae, diatoms, and small crustaceans in a body of water buried beneath over a kilometer of Antarctic ice, according to a news report from Nature. The results come from the Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA) project, which had previously announced that it would explore the water, called…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Fascinating Experiment Uses a Robot to Recreate the Walking Style of an Early Land Dweller

Using computer simulations and a robot, researchers have recreated the likely gait of a 300-million-year-old animal considered to be among the planet’s earliest terrestrial walkers. Hundreds of millions of years ago, aquatic animals began transitioning to land. But how did the world’s first quadrupedal vertebrates walk? The question sounds simple enough, but no one was…

Biology George Dvorsky

Potatoes Have a Form of ‘Depression,’ but Scientists Have an Idea to Cure Them

Scientists are trying to revolutionize potatoes and, in the process, cure the tubers’ depression, the result of generations of inbreeding. Potato depression is obviously nothing like human depression, of course. Potatoes reproduce through cloning, so their genome is laden with mutations. Those mutations could result in things like stunted growth or shorter lifespans. A team…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

A Seed Has Sprouted on the Moon for the First Time [Update: It Died]

China’s miniature biosphere experiment has yielded a sprouting cotton seed, and it’s the first plant to germinate on the Moon—an important first step in creating a viable, self-sustaining lunar colony. China’s Chang’e 4 lander arrived on the Moon’s far side on January 3, 2018. Among its cargo is a miniature lunar biosphere developed by scientists…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

Monogamous Species Share Deep Genetic Similarities

Regardless of your opinion on monogamy, it’s a trait found across many species, from songbirds to fish to many humans. But surprisingly, there are plenty of examples in which members of one species will form lifelong pairs, but those of a closely related species won’t. An international team of researchers performed a genetic analysis to…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Iguanas Reintroduced to the Largest Galapagos Island After Nearly 200 Year Absence

In 1835, Charles Darwin documented the presence of iguanas on Santiago island, the largest in the Galapagos archipelago. It probably never dawned on the pioneering naturalist that he would be the last scientist to do so. Invasive species wiped the island clean of iguanas—an ecological void that’s now been filled thanks to an ambitious restoration…

Conservation George Dvorsky

Let’s Make Tomatoes Spicy With Genetic Engineering, Scientists Proclaim

Surely, someone out there has cooked up a shrimp fra diavolo and thought, “mamma mia, this would be much easier if someone genetically modified the tomatoes to be spicy,” right? Right? A team of scientists in Brazil and Ireland have published an opinion paper arguing exactly that point: that new gene editing techniques could make…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Charming, Newly Discovered Treefrog Has a Mysterious Claw

Introducing Hyloscirtus hillisi, a species of treefrog recently discovered in the eastern Andes of Ecuador. Among its many distinguishing features is an enlarged claw, the purpose of which isn’t immediately clear. H. hillisi is the latest member of the Hyloscirtus genus of frogs, of which 37 species were previously known. These frogs like to live…

Biology George Dvorsky

DIY Organ Removal, Pain, and Bloody Miracles: The Grisly World of First Surgeries

The Wound Man (or Man of Wounds, depending on how you translate it in Fasciculus medicinae, the 1491 medical treatise in which his image first appears) is one of the most well-known medieval surgical diagrams going. It’s up there with da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man (né 1490) but is far less aesthetically pleasing than what everyone’s favorite…

Tech News Kim Kelly

Industrial Waste From Ants Emits Potent Greenhouse Gas

New research shows that garbage piles produced by leaf-cutter ants emit significant amounts of nitrous oxide—a potent greenhouse gas. Chemical reactions within the organic waste piles produced by leaf-cutter ants create copious amounts of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, according to new research published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. These industrious insects…

Biology George Dvorsky

The Scientists Who Brave Angry Hawk Parents, Wasps and 80-Foot-Falls to Save Endangered Chicks

Life is hard for Ridgway’s hawks, a species found only in a small sliver of habitat on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Once found all over the island, the hawks have steadily declined due to local humans killing them and clearing their forest habitat. If that weren’t enough, their chicks are threatened by botflies, whose…

Earther Jake Buehler

Report: Scientists in China Are Losing Track of Gene-Edited CRISPR Patients

Gene therapies are very much at their preliminary stages of development, so it would make sense to keep tabs on patients whose DNA has been modified via the innovative CRISPR technique. For some scientists in China, however, this is apparently not a priority. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that an undisclosed number of Chinese…

Biology George Dvorsky

What’s Wrong If You Have a Red, Shiny Nose?

All this talk about whether or not Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is problematic has obscured a very important question—i.e., what was actually wrong with Rudolph’s nose? Like, medically? Did no one ever think of taking him to a doctor, to see if everything was ok with his nose, before being mean to him about…

Tech News Daniel Kolitz

Alexa Snooping, Robot Takeovers, and FBI Surveillance: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week

The holidays are nigh, and this year’s naughty list is long indeed—and from revelations of reckless privacy violations over at Facebook headquarters and continued labor abuses at Amazon to the generally terrible way humanity has treated our homeworld, your erstwhile chroniclers at Gizmodo have been adding names to it until the very last minute. This…

Tech News Tom McKay

Ancient Flying Reptiles Featured Distinctly Dino-Like Feathers

Feathers were common among dinosaurs, but scientists aren’t certain if the fur-like coverings of pterosaurs—a group of flying reptiles—were of the same sort seen on dinos and birds or something completely different. The discovery of two exquisite fossils in China now suggests pterosaurs were very much covered in feathers, potentially pushing back the origin of…

Biology George Dvorsky

What’s the Newest Animal?

Bears. Donkeys. Fat, friendly dogs. These animals—animals, generally—have been around for an extremely long time, long enough to feel like a fixed part of the landscape. It’s easy to forget that these creatures weren’t always there, and didn’t always look like they do now. On human—as opposed to geologic—time, forms seem more or less fixed;…

Tech News Daniel Kolitz

Antarctic Scientists Are About to Drill Into One of the Most Isolated Lakes on Earth

Buried beneath 4,000 feet of Antarctic ice lies Lake Mercer, a subglacial body of water that formed thousands of years ago and has been long separated from the rest of the world. A project to explore this lake—and its mysterious contents—is finally set to begin later this month. Called Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access, or…

Earth Science George Dvorsky

Gemologist Finds Insect Trapped in Opal Instead of Amber

See What Trees Look Like to a Bird’s Ultraviolet-Sensitive Eyes

Ancient Shark With Spaceship-Shaped Teeth Named After Vintage Video Game

Report: Evidence of Life Found in Lake Deep Beneath Antarctic Ice

Fascinating Experiment Uses a Robot to Recreate the Walking Style of an Early Land Dweller

Potatoes Have a Form of ‘Depression,’ but Scientists Have an Idea to Cure Them

A Seed Has Sprouted on the Moon for the First Time [Update: It Died]

Monogamous Species Share Deep Genetic Similarities

Iguanas Reintroduced to the Largest Galapagos Island After Nearly 200 Year Absence

Let’s Make Tomatoes Spicy With Genetic Engineering, Scientists Proclaim

Charming, Newly Discovered Treefrog Has a Mysterious Claw

DIY Organ Removal, Pain, and Bloody Miracles: The Grisly World of First Surgeries

Industrial Waste From Ants Emits Potent Greenhouse Gas

The Scientists Who Brave Angry Hawk Parents, Wasps and 80-Foot-Falls to Save Endangered Chicks

Report: Scientists in China Are Losing Track of Gene-Edited CRISPR Patients

What’s Wrong If You Have a Red, Shiny Nose?

Alexa Snooping, Robot Takeovers, and FBI Surveillance: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week

Ancient Flying Reptiles Featured Distinctly Dino-Like Feathers

What’s the Newest Animal?

Antarctic Scientists Are About to Drill Into One of the Most Isolated Lakes on Earth

Do ‘Disclosure Day’ Prep With a Spielberg Sci-Fi Marathon

How to Watch the F1 Japanese GP 2026 on a Free Channel

Ranking 2016’s Superhero Debuts, 10 Years Later

Fourth Most Populous Country in the World Bans Most Social Media for Kids

How to watch UFC Fight Night Adesanya vs Pyfer live this Saturday

‘Steel Ball Run’ Will Return This Year…Eventually

‘The Mummy 4’ Is Getting the Family Back Together

JD Vance Says UFOs Are Actually Demons

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets

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