After more than two decades of drilling in Antarctica, Russian scientists have confirmed that they reached the surface of a gigantic freshwater lake hidden under miles of ice for some 20 million years. The scientists returned 40 litres of water to the surface - water isolated from earthly life forms since before Man existed.  The scientists will later remove the frozen sample for analysis in December when the next Antarctic summer comes. They have now left the site. The scientists rebuffed claims that their drilling could have contaminated the lake, a body of water which has been in isolation for 20 million years.

Hunting spiders can not only watch your every move, but they can feel those moves, and that of their prey, through the air. How their tiny specialized hairs do it has puzzled researchers for decades, but one team of scientists may have found a break. Their physics-focused work suggests each hair acts like a single, independent ear — not a network of ear parts that, together, turn a spider’s exoskeleton into one giant ear, as was previously assumed.

In natural science, abiogenesis or biopoesis is the study of how biological life arises from inorganic matter through natural processes, and the method by which life on Earth arose. Most amino acids, often called “the building blocks of life”, can form via natural chemical reactions unrelated to life, as demonstrated in the Miller–Urey experiment and similar experiments that involved simulating some of the hypothetical conditions of the early Earth in a laboratory. In all living things, these amino acids are organized into proteins, and the construction of these proteins is mediated by nucleic acids, that are themselves synthesized through biochemical pathways catalysed by proteins. Which of these organic molecules first arose and how they formed the first life is the focus of abiogenesis.

Scientists scanning the deep interior of Earth have found evidence of a vast water reservoir beneath eastern Asia that is at least the volume of the Arctic Ocean. The discovery marks the first time such a large body of water has found in the planet’s deep mantle.

Scientists recently rediscovered a species of bioluminescent mushrooms in Brazil that hadn’t been seen since 1840. Exactly how, or why the fungi glow is still unclear.

The notion of traveling back in time to correct regrettable mistakes like misplacing your iPhone has long been the stuff of science fantasy. Sadly, to the chagrin of sci-fans everywhere, physicists in China now have evidence that suggests it will most likely stay that way.

Centaurus A or NGC 5128 is a prominent galaxy in the constellation of Centaurus. There is considerable debate in the literature regarding the galaxy’s fundamental properties such as its Hubble type (lenticular galaxy or a giant elliptical galaxy). A relativistic jet which extracts energy from the vicinity of what is believed to be a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy is responsible for emissions in the X-ray and radio wavelengths. 

Scientists have discovered flowing salt water on Mars which has sparked conversations about potential alien life within the planet’s surface. The images sent from NASA’s orbiter unveiled flowing waters descending down from rocky slopes.