South Korean Soldiers Were Searching for Landmines—They Found a Centuries-Old Weapon Instead
While searching for forgotten landmines, South Korean troops happened upon the earliest Korean firearm ever discovered.
Ryan Whalen
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.
China is Planning to Create a Next-Generation Map of Mars Ahead of Its Historic Sample Return Mission
China is turning to artificial intelligence to create a next-generation geological map of Mars, bringing two of the world’s biggest technological competitions—the space race and AI race—together.
New Evidence Reveals Nazi Germany Was Farther From Building an Atomic Bomb Than Previously Believed
Just how close the race between America and the Nazis to develop the first nuclear weapon was has long been an area of debate.
“Great News in the Search for Life”: Saturn’s Moon Enceladus May Be Even More Hospitable to Life Than Scientists Thought
New research suggests that Saturn’s Moon Enceladus may be more survivable and life there more detectable than previously assumed.
James Webb Space Telescope Discovery May Help Answer Why Astronomers Can’t Find the First Stars
The James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) surprise findings about the early universe may explain why scientists can't locate the first stars.
Scientists Turn Pompeii’s Destruction Into the Most Precise Clock Yet for Dating Ancient Volcanic Eruptions
Thanks to the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius, archaeologists now have access to the most exact volcanic eruption dating technique ever.
Scientists Shielded Flies From Earth’s Magnetic Field—and Their Lifespans Mysteriously Increased
Earth’s magnetic field has a stronger impact on cellular health than realized, scientists say, after magnetic shielding experiments.
Scientists Just Solved a 178-Year-Old Space Weather Mystery
One of the earliest known instances of space weather interfering with human technology has finally been solved after 178 years.
This Breakthrough Computer Has No Chips—and Uses Trillions of DNA Strands to Do Math
A new DNA computer developed at Maynooth University offers incredible advancements in complexity and speed.
Scientists Took a Tyrannosaurus Rex’s Temperature for the First Time, and It was Almost Like that of a Human
Tyrannosaurus rex was an energetic, hot-blooded predator, UCLA scientists found in new genetic research, basedon tooth enamel.
Scientists May Have Uncovered a ‘Holy Grail’ for Deciphering the Lost Scrolls of Herculaneum—By Burning Modern Papyrus
Researchers today are burning modern papyrus to develop new methods for reconstructing the destroyed Herculaneum scrolls.
DARPA is About to Test Robotic Surgeons That Could Soon Help Save Lives on the Battlefield
DARPA is offering a $3.5 million prize pool for autonomous robotic surgeons to stitch soldiers back together on hostile battlefields.
A Brain-Computer Interface Decoded Speech and Movement Simultaneously for the First Time
A new brain-computer interface (BCI) is the first to translate both speech and movement with a single device that reads data from implants.
A Pompeii-Like Eruption Buried This Landscape 22 Million Years Ago—Scientists Just Discovered What Lies Beneath
The Americas experienced their own Vesuvius-style volcanic eruption 21.9 million years ago, devastating a portion of Chile.
This Stretchable Screen Packs 16,000 Pixels Per Inch—and Shines Brighter Than Any Before
A new stretchable quantum-dot light-emitting diode (QLED) delivers incredibly high resolution while producing record brightness.
A Volcanic Seafloor Collapse Released a Massive Tsunami, and Scientists Got an Extremely Rare Look at the Submarine Devastation
The most powerful volcanic eruption of the last century caused massive changes to the ocean floor, according to newly published research.
NASA’s Chandra Discovers a Mysterious New Class of Cosmic Objects That Could Solve Two Longstanding Mysteries
A new class of cosmic objects observed by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory would be the key to two long-standing mysteries, say astronomers.
The First Denisovan Forearm Bone Ever Discovered Fills a Key Knowledge Gap in Our Understanding of This Archaic Hominin
This Denisovan radius fills a knowledge gap about these archaic hominins, whose fossils rarely include anything except skulls.
25,000 Years Ago, the Earliest Human Drug Use May Have Occurred on This Small Island
What may be the earliest known evidence of human drug use suggests that it occurred 25,000 years ago, according to new research.
66-Million-Year-Old Footprint Discovery Reveals Something About Tyrannosaurus That Researchers “Never Imagined”
A new discovery is revealing how the long-extinct Tyrannosaurus Rex may have moved when it was still alive.
4,500-Year-Old Egyptian Tomb Discovery Reveals Something Archaeologists Say They Have Never Seen
An important Egyptian tomb from the Fifth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom was recently discovered in Saqqara by an archaeological mission.
Biologists Were Wrong About the “American Cheetah” According to New Genetic Findings
The extinct American cheetah wasn’t a true cheetah at all, say biologists in new research overturning scientific understanding of the big cat.
New Genetic Evidence of an Ancient Killer Has Surfaced After Being Concealed in Medieval Texts for Centuries
The story of a Medieval European plague is coming into focus through historic manuscripts, but not in the way you might think.
No Longer Science Fiction, the U.S. Army is Moving a High-Energy Laser Weapon Into Production for the First Time
The US Army has authorized its first contract for a directed energy weapons system, designed to take down threats with high-energy lasers.
“We’ve Never Seen Anything Quite Like This”: A Strange Ten-Sided “Structure” Has Been Spotted on Saturn’s North Pole
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has glimpsed a ten-sided atmospheric wave at Saturn’s south pole, the first such jet pattern observed there.
World’s Most Sensitive Dark Matter Detector Just Found Something Scientists Can’t Easily Explain
Dark matter may finally be coming into focus thanks to a particle interaction that is difficult to explain as arising from ordinary matter.
New Analysis of “Tasmanian Tiger” Skulls Overturns Assumptions About What Led to the Species’ Extinction
Australia’s extinct thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger, was not the powerful predator European settlers had assumed.
Scientists Discover How Extraterrestrial Life Could Thrive In the Harsh Acidic Clouds Surrounding Venus
A new theoretical kind of extraterrestrial life could survive the harsh acid clouds of Venus, according to MIT researchers.
Researchers Connect Indigenous Star Knowledge to One of Humanity’s Most Advanced Ground Telescope Projects
While astronomers are providing new knowledge of the stars daily, ancestral star knowledge is fading from local consciousness.
Breakthrough Computers Made From Slime Use Amoeba-like Organisms to Solve Intricate and Costly Problems
Computers based on slime molds may be the next step for solving some of the most advanced and resource-heavy problems.
A B-52 Carrying Two Hydrogen Bombs Broke Apart Over North Carolina in 1961—and Nearly Caused a Nuclear Disaster
The dropping of a nuclear bomb on the United States isn’t just relegated to Cold War fiction; it actually occurred in 1961.
The Secret to Longevity and Destroying Cancer May Hide in Bat DNA
Bat DNA may hold the secret to a long and healthy life, according to an international team of researchers.
Immune Cells Revealed to Have a Unique Sense of Touch in New Research That Could Rewrite How We Understand Autoimmune Problems
How memory survives in immune cells works differently than medical scientists previously believed, according to international researchers.
Scientists Grew Human Brain Organoids for Years and Discovered They Keep Track of Time
Cell-culture brain models called organoids can be used to study far more advanced neurodevelopmental disorders than researchers imagined.
The Massive Asteroid Apophis Will Pass Closer to Earth Than Some Satellites in 2029—Planetary Defense Researchers are Getting Ready
One of planetary defense's biggest opportunities will come as the asteroid Apophis makes its tight flyby of our planet on April 13, 2029.
James Webb Space Telescope Discovery Reveals Hidden Stars Massively Expanding Early Galaxies
James Webb Space Telescope data have revealed hidden stars that astronomers say are unexpectedly increasing the mass of early galaxies.
A Universal Quantum Behavior Achieved for the First Time Confirms the Distance Between Novel Quantum States
A universal quantum state, long the subject of theoretical predictions, has been achieved for the first time in simulated quantum matter.
The Death of a Supercontinent May Have Formed the Grand Canyon Close to a Billion Years Earlier than Once Thought, New Study Reveals
The Grand Canyon, one of America’s most famous landmarks, may have been exposed when an ancient supercontinent cracked apart.
4,000 Years Ago, These Ancient Seafarers May Have Brought Symbolic Art to Distant Lands Earlier Than Their First Neolithic Pottery
The ancient Austronesian maritime civilization may have carried painted art on its journeys before developing its first Neolithic pottery.
A Neanderthal Gene May Be Making Some Modern Humans Bigger and More Muscular
Physically larger humans today may owe their large muscle mass to an inherited Neanderthal growth hormone receptor.
Solving This London Mystery Led to the Discovery of a New Species Almost 6,000 Miles Away
A misidentified frog species that was well known across Ecuador and Colombia remained unrecognized by science for decades—until now.
This Hidden Structure Within the Building Blocks of Atoms May Dictate the Imbalance Between Matter and Antimatter
New evidence suggests the structure that holds protons together also dictates the quantum property that separates matter from antimatter.
Inspired by Coral, These Scientists Are Regrowing Bone Under Some of the Most Challenging Conditions
Medical scientists in China have developed a new method for regrowing bone after Steroid-Induced Osteonecrosis of the Femoral Head.
As This Ancient Star Cluster Unravels, a Never-Before-Seen Star Ribbon is Forming Under the Influence of Dark Matter
Dark matter remains elusive to scientists, despite making up the majority of our universe’s mass, and now there's a new way to observe it.
Cameras Finally Captured How a Parasitic Plant That Mimics Mushrooms Spreads Its Seeds—and an Unexpected Ally Was Revealed
A strange plant hides in the forests of Japan, acting as both a parasite and a doppelgänger, tricking hermit crabs into spreading its seeds.
Scientists Are About to Test a Revolutionary New Device During This Week’s Solar Eclipse—Here’s What It Could Reveal
European scientists are taking advantage of this week's solar eclipse to test a potentially groundbreaking instrument that could transform the way astronomers study the Sun.
Forget Lasers—Researchers Just Created Quantum Entanglement Using Sunlight
Lasers are no longer required to produce quantum entanglement, physicists say, after achieving the state using sunlight.
“One Origin of the Genetic Code, but Two Origins of Life”: Scientists Reveal the Ancient Evolutionary Split That Gave Rise to All Life on Earth
An international research team has uncovered how LUCA, the last ancestor of all life on Earth, split into the first two branches.
Antarctica’s Eerie Blood Falls Could Host a Thriving Colony of Million-Year-Old Microbes, Pointing to Evidence of a “Lost” Ocean
Antarctica’s eerie Blood Falls may point to a hidden connection between the sea and the coldest desert on Earth.
An Unexpected Carnivorous Plant Has Been Discovered Growing in China’s Mountain Forests
A century and a half later, botanists are still proving Charles Darwin right in their recent identification of a new carnivorous plant.