CNN – Offbeat

By Jacopo Prisco, CNN (CNN) — The popular theory that comets were crucial in kick-starting life on Earth billions of years ago may not hold up, according to new computer simulations that counter decades of scientific thinking. The finding suggests the fragile organic molecules supposedly carried by the icy objects would have been destroyed on

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — A shrinking ice cap in Arctic Canada tells a striking story of how humans may have halted the planet’s next ice age by burning fossil fuels, according to new research. Around 20,000 years ago, the once vast Laurentide Ice Sheet sprawled from the Arctic Circle as far south as

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Before Agatha Christie became one of the best-selling authors of all time, she worked in a chemist’s shop in her hometown of Torquay, England, in service of someone she referred to in her memoir only as Mr. P. Mr. P carried a dark lump of curare in his pocket

By Dharma Niles, CNN (CNN) — October’s full moon will grace the sky this weekend — and those with a keen eye may also catch a glimpse of Saturn. Just a month after the fall equinox, the full moon will rise particularly early, becoming visible at sunset and reaching peak illumination at 12:12 a.m. ET

By Amarachi Orie, CNN (CNN) — For more than a century, Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” was believed to have been the result of imagination, previous drawings and memories of scenes he had seen outside his barred asylum bedroom window in France. However, the 1889 artwork was probably rooted much more in observation than

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — NASA offered new details Friday about a mad dash to get two lunar landers — built by competing companies Blue Origin and SpaceX — and the space agency’s own rocket and spacecraft ready for a crucial test mission next year. “We will not delude ourselves into believing that more

By Mindy Weisberger, CNN (CNN) — As the reign of the dinosaurs crumbled about 65 million years ago, new royalty rose from the ashes: a king among fungi. Scientists recently identified Dianjunus rex, a gigantic species of fungus in what’s now China that shares part of its name with Tyrannosaurus rex, the renowned dinosaur “king.”

By Paula Hancocks, CNN Abu Dhabi (CNN) — The conflict in the Middle East is shaping up to be yet another US war with a toxic legacy. Bombs and missiles have released heavy metals and harmful chemicals into the atmosphere. US-Israeli and Iranian strikes have hit oil facilities, igniting fires that covered Tehran in thick

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — More than 50,000 people are estimated to have died across Europe’s cities during the brutal heat waves that roiled the continent this summer — making this year’s heat the region’s deadliest on record, according to a new analysis. About two-thirds of the deaths, more than 32,600, are directly attributed

By Jack Guy (CNN) — An image of ink droplets inside a printer has won first prize at the Nikon Small World photomicrography competition, which focuses on images taken through a microscope. Ole Bielfeldt, a student and experimental photographer from Germany, took the photo using an imaging rig he built himself, according to a statement

By Jacopo Prisco, CNN (CNN) — The Stanford Prison Experiment lasted less than a week in 1971, but its claims about human nature endured for decades. Now, a new Netflix series is bringing one of psychology’s most controversial studies, and some of the biggest concerns surrounding it, back into the spotlight. Organized by American psychologist

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — The Orionid meteor shower creates one of the most brilliant displays in the night sky each fall — but this year’s celestial event may have a dimmer showing due to a bright moon. Unlike the recent Draconid meteor shower, a treat for early sleepers, the Orionids will reward those

By Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — A UN climate report released Wednesday finds the globe will unavoidably slip past the Paris Climate Agreement’s 1.5-degree Celsius warming target in the next few years. The task now, the report states, is to make the period of warming “overshoot” as limited as possible, eventually bringing global average temperatures

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — The United States’ two largest reservoirs have dropped to unprecedented lows this year as drought grips the Southwest, but below the ground there’s another water crisis playing out — one that’s much less visible, but no less alarming. The amount of groundwater in the Colorado River Basin is declining

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — A rare move by a Russian-made satellite may have brought it within less than a mile of a commercial Earth-observation satellite that may be used to provide national security services to countries such as Ukraine. It’s not clear what, exactly, the Russian satellite, called Kosmos 2612 or Cosmos 2612,

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Mars’ largely unexplored moons are getting their moment in the spotlight now that a first-of-its-kind mission has taken flight. The red planet has many unsolved riddles, but the Japanese-led Martian Moons eXploration project will focus solely on two of the biggest curiosities orbiting nearby. Phobos and Deimos have long

By Katie Hunt, Alex Stambaugh, CNN (CNN) — A recent expedition to a remote South Pacific island to search for wreckage from Amelia Earhart’s lost plane has come up empty. Researchers said Monday they found “no conclusive evidence” that the famed aviator landed her Lockheed 10E Electra aircraft on or near the small atoll south

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — The staggering rise of AI has become a political flashpoint, especially when it comes to the data centers needed to train and operate it. As the industry booms, many people are increasingly worried about the environmental impacts of these hulking buildings, from their seemingly insatiable demand for water and