Dead – yes, dead – tardigrade found beneath Antarctica

A completely unexpected discovery beneath the ice.

(Goldstein Lab/Wkikpedia/Tigerspaws/Big Think)
  • Scientists find remains of a tardigrade and crustaceans in a deep, frozen Antarctic lake.
  • The creatures' origin is unknown, and further study is ongoing.
  • Biology speaks up about Antarctica's history.
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Surprising Science

Organic farming is 'much worse' for the climate than conventional food production, researchers say

More farm space equals more carbon.

Photo credit: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images
  • A report from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, found that organic food production leads to higher carbon emissions.
  • This includes livestock as well as vegetables, as organic farming requires no fertilizer usage.
  • Certain types of organic foods are less impactful than others, the researchers note.
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Surprising Science

Organisms living inside the Earth far outnumber all the humans, reveals study

Researchers find an amazing amount of often-weird forms of life below the planet's surface.

Credit: Gaetan Borgonie (Extreme Life Isyensya, Belgium).
  • Scientists found a rich ecosystem deep inside the planet.
  • The "deep biosphere" contains mostly bacteria and microbes.
  • The amount of life below the surface is hundreds of times greater than the combined weight of all the humans.
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Surprising Science

Scientists plan to spray the sky with light-reflecting particles to dim the sun

A trio of scientists from Harvard hopes to do this in 2019.

Image: Shutterstock/Big Think
  • Scientists hope to launch the world's first solar geoengineering project next year.
  • The project involves spraying calcium carbonate into the stratosphere.
  • The team hopes to get people thinking more seriously about bioengineering.
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Technology & Innovation

An unexplained seismic event ‘rang’ across the Earth in November

It has experts baffled.

(LN.Vector pattern/Shutterstock)
  • On November 11, seismologists began puzzling over a weird low-frequency rumble that rang the entire planet.
  • The wave coming from somewhere was weirdly simple and tied to no known events.
  • More comprehensive study of an uncharted area of the ocean floor could provide an explanation of the mystery.
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Surprising Science