Science

One of the world’s most mysterious whales has been filmed for the first time in its natural habitat off the coast of Madagascar. The Omura’s whale, which has a body almost as long as a school bus, had only been given its name based on dead specimens in 2003. The mammal’s size was approximately 33 to 38 feet, making it …

Crews in San Diego have successfully freed a humpback whale that was first spotted entangled in some type of fishing line off the coast of Orange County on Friday. SeaWorld and San Diego lifeguards worked to free the whale from some netting, removing rope from the whale’s mouth. The whale was spotted off Balboa Pier in Newport Beach Friday, caught …

According to a new NASA study, ice sheet gains outweigh losses on the Antarctic continent. The findings conflict with those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which in 2013 suggested gains were not keeping up with losses. “The research challenges the conclusions of other studies, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 2013 report, which says that Antarctica …

Whether you’re an amateur astronomer, a casual stargazer or an evil sorcerer with a cosmic scheme, now is the perfect time to witness a rare alignment of three planets in the night sky. A “dawn planetary trio” — Jupiter, Venus, Mars — is visible in the eastern sky about an hour before the sun rises this week and into early …

Scientists discovered an Ornithomimus dinosaur with well-preserved tail feathers and soft tissues. The new finding is shedding light on the evolution and links between dinosaurs and birds, according to a study at University of Alberta. “We now know what the plumage looked like on the tail, and that from the mid-femur down, it had bare skin,” says Aaron van der …

Scientists have unveiled the first-ever sonic tractor beam, capable of lifting and moving objects using only sound waves. Tractor beams are mysterious rays that can grab and lift objects. The concept was created by science-fiction writers but has since come to fascinate scientists and engineers. Researchers at the Universities of Sussex and Bristol, in collaboration with Ultrahaptics, have now built …

It’s not a catchy name, but a piece of space debris called WT1190F is on a collision course with Earth. The oh-so-appropriately titled WT1190F is expected to hit Earth Nov. 13 — or “WTF” for short. It’s likely a piece of debris left by man from a previous space mission, maybe even one of the Apollo missions. But since scientists …

The Cassini probe is set to make its deepest-ever dive through a plume of ice that Saturn’s Enceladus moon sprays into space. It is hoped that the flyby will give NASA new clues about what goes on in the ocean on the moon’s surface and whether it can support life. During the flyby, which is expected to take place at …

Archaeologists who uncovered a 3500-year-old warrior’s tomb in Greece say it is probably the field’s best discovery since the 1950s. The find is so extraordinary that UC’s Shari Stocker, senior research associate in the Department of Classics, McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, states: “This previously unopened shaft grave of a wealthy Mycenaean warrior, dating back 3,500 years, is one …

10,000-year-old extinct lion cubs discovered in near-perfect condition in Siberian permafrost. According to the Siberian Times, the cubs which were “almost perfectly preserved in permafrost” were discovered in the Sakha Republic, a region in northeastern Siberia earlier this summer.

Beachgoers in North Carolina were given a shock when the fossilized teeth of an ancient shark washed ashore. The not-so-pearly-whites are believed to have belonged to a 60-foot megalodon. Six-inch long teeth from the Megalodon, a prehistoric shark which roamed the oceans 15 million years ago, were found by beach-goers at Topsail Beach and Surf City. Beach dredging and recent …