Spanish mountaineer Sergi Mingote has died while climbing K2, the world’s second highest summit, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced Saturday. “Sad death of Sergi Mingote at K2,” Sanchez tweeted. “He wanted to continue making history by being part of the first expedition to crown this mountain in the middle of winter and a tragic…

It’s as if 10 of the world’s largest commercial jets fell out of the sky, every day for an entire year. The official global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surpassed 2 million on Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The tragic milestone came just over a year after the first Covid-19 death was reported…

An extinct species of wolf, which served as inspiration for a mythical creature in the popular television show “Game of Thrones,” had little in common with the gray wolves that roam North America today, new research has found. Known as Canis dirus, meaning “fearsome dog,” it had been thought that dire wolves were simply a…

The universe may be a little darker after a recent discovery has shown that there could be fewer galaxies populating it. A previous measurement by Hubble Space Telescope suggested there were 2 trillion galaxies spread across the universe. Now, the latest research points to only hundreds of billions of galaxies instead. After NASA’s New Horizons…

The world is on track for a “ghastly future,” an international group of scientists has warned, with accelerating climate change and biodiversity loss threatening the survival of all of the planet’s species unless world leaders face up to the challenge and act urgently. As part of a bleak “prognosis,” a team of 17 leading scientists…

A hot and rocky exoplanet known as a super-Earth has been discovered orbiting one of the oldest stars in our Milky Way galaxy, according to a new study. The exoplanet, called that because it’s located outside our solar system, is about 50% larger than Earth and has three times the mass — which makes it…

High school sweethearts who were separated nearly seven decades ago reunited during the coronavirus pandemic and are now married. The love story began 68 years ago, when Fred Paul and Florence Harvey first found each other. The couple met as teenagers in Wandsworth, a small town in Newfoundland and Labrador province, Canada. They spent every…

Galaxies die when the stars that live in them stop forming. Now, for the first time, astronomers have witnessed this phenomenon in a distant galaxy. Scientists were able to glimpse a galaxy as it ejected almost half of the gas it uses to form stars. They captured this rare observation using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter…

As humans, we may owe our ability to adapt to new situations and environments to our earliest ancestors. New evidence unearthed at the Oldupai Gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Tanzania known as the “Cradle of Mankind,” has revealed that “environmental adaptability and pioneering behavior were in place two million years ago” in early…

A judge in Baghdad’s investigative court has issued an arrest warrant for outgoing US President Donald Trump, over the killing of an Iraqi paramilitary leader during the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani last year. Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis — the Iraqi deputy head of the Iran-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces — was killed along with…

A rare note written by a doctor who treated Napoleon Bonaparte has revealed how the French military leader and emperor suffered with sickness and pain in the years before his death. The letter, dated June 4, 1818, was written by Irish surgeon Barry Edward O’Meara, who treated Napoleon when he was in exile on the…

Plastic will be the likely calling card of our time on Earth when modern sites are excavated by future researchers. And plastic is leaving its mark at historic sites as well, according to a new study. Castell Henllys is the site of an Iron Age village in the Welsh Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. It was…

Prepare for a year filled with awe-inspiring reasons to look up at the night sky. There will be full moons, meteor showers, eclipses and planets visible in the morning and evening skies across the world in 2021. Meteor showers The Quadrantid meteor shower on January 3 kicked off the first of 12 meteor showers across…

A man in British Columbia, Canada, is starting the new year with hundreds of dollars in fines after police officials said he touched his taxi driver’s face and refused to wear a face mask inside the car. On New Year’s Day, around 1 a.m., the taxi driver in Victoria called 911 to report that a…

The World Health Organization has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for emergency use, paving the way for lower and middle-income countries to begin immunizing their populations against Covid-19. The vaccine was first approved in the UK on December 8 for emergency use within the country, with the US, Canada and European Union following soon after. All…

Cutting the hair of another astronaut on the International Space Station is one of the most stressful things US Air Force Col. Terry Virts has ever done — even above spacewalking, flying F-16s, piloting a space shuttle and enduring multiple rounds of survival training around the world. Virts, a NASA astronaut selected in 2000, had…

This year has upended so much in modern life that even New Year’s Eve celebrations tonight will be different, downscaled or canceled due to Covid-19 precautions. From London to Rio de Janeiro, large firework displays have been substituted with special at-home broadcasts. Australian police will conduct spot checks of New Year’s Eve parties in New…

2020 was supposed to be the watershed moment for action on climate change, the year the world woke up to the challenge and started taking it seriously. Instead, it has symbolically topped a decade of wasted climate promises. Inspired by a wave of climate activism, national leaders were expected to come up with new, more…

A statement from a top Russian official indicates that the country’s true coronavirus death toll is more than three times higher than the country’s official statistics show. New data from the country’s statistics agency, Rosstat, shows that during the first 11 months of 2020, there was an increase of more than 229,700 more deaths in…

Life wasn’t easy for Patricia, even before the pandemic hit. She struggled with mental health issues after fleeing an abusive relationship, moving herself and her children into an east London flat with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. For the past few years, Patricia held down a job as a barista, but she…

Sometimes, looking at things we thought we knew with fresh eyes (and new tools) can lead to incredible discoveries. That’s what happened when Jeff Weinell, a graduate research assistant at the University of Kansas’ Biodiversity Institute, found out that three specimens of snakes preserved in the institute’s biodiversity collection, found in field missions between 2006…

The holidays may look a little different this year due to the pandemic, but they will still happen — even in space. The International Space Station will host seven crew members throughout the holiday season, the most ever for the orbiting laboratory in its 20 years of having humans living aboard. The international crew includes…

Editor’s Note: Bella’s voice has been digitally altered to maintain her anonymity. Bella says her unplanned pregnancy made her mother so furious that she beat her. She had no idea that the 19-year-old had begun exchanging sex for cash in order to help pay for food for her three younger siblings and two cousins, who…

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Antarctica has recorded its first Covid-19 case after 36 people tested positive on a research base, according to a statement released by the Chilean Army. The news marks an unfortunate milestone in the global fight against coronavirus, as until this week, Antarctica was the last continent free from the virus’ grip. On Sunday, the General…

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A newly discovered sungrazer comet was photographed approaching the sun during last week’s solar eclipse before it evaporated into dust particles. The comet was first spotted by Thai amateur astronomer Worachate Boonplod in satellite data on December 13, a day before the eclipse, NASA said on Saturday. He was taking part in the NASA-funded Sungrazer…

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Keep your eyes on the early morning skies for the oft-neglected Ursid meteor shower on December 22, on the heels of the winter solstice. This small meteor shower can really be seen only from the Northern Hemisphere with between five and 10 meteors streaking across the sky per hour. The Ursids peak on the evening…

Researchers have uncovered the fossil of an early mammal named the “crazy beast” that lived 66 million years ago alongside dinosaurs and giant crocodiles on Madagascar, and it’s unlike any mammal ever known, living or extinct. This mammal, about the size of an opossum, had a mix of strange characteristics that haven’t been seen together…

A dark vortex-like storm on Neptune discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope in September 2018 has reversed course to avoid an untimely demise on the blue ice giant. The storm is 4,600 miles across — wider than the Atlantic Ocean — and formed in Neptune’s northern hemisphere. Hubble has kept an eye on the storm…

A family of alleged drug dealers in Peru found themselves firmly on the naughty list this year as police officers dressed as Santa and an elf raided their home. The festive operation, which took place on December 5 in Lima, resulted in four arrests, according to a statement from the Peruvian National Police released Wednesday.…

The two largest planets in our solar system are coming closer together than they have been since the Middle Ages, and it’s happening just in time for Christmas — hence the nickname of the “Christmas Star.” While it’s not an actual star, the two planets will certainly make a bright splash in the night sky.…

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The Geminid meteor shower is one of the most active and dependable displays of the year, according to the American Meteor Society. This year, the shower will peak on the evening of December 13 and 14, so let’s hope for clear skies to see a beautiful show of green fireballs. This phenomenon was first recorded…