Great Moments In Science

In 2013 the academic journal published an article called, “Taste perception: from the tongue to the testis”. It looked at some of the distinct taste sensations that we register in the Gustatory Cortex - the taste centre of our brain which are picked up by taste buds on the tongue. However, there's a difference between taste buds and taste receptors ... which is where the testis enters the story.

The first definite proof of a link between humans and dogs is a 15,000-year-old grave holding a dog, a man and a woman. Intensive breeding of dogs began about 200 years ago, which resulted in most of today's 450-or-so breeds. And there's a definite mutual appreciation society between people and canines

The further adventures of some of the most powerful events in our Universe: Gamma Ray Bursts. The biggest one recorded was in October 2022, in a galaxy far, far away. What would have happened if it had exploded inside our Milky Way galaxy?

Nuclear weapons carry enormous destructive power in a very small package. A nuclear weapon weighing about a quarter of a ton can release as much energy as exploding 1.2 million tons of TNT – that’s a multiplication factor of about five million. During the Cold War the combined numbers of US and Soviet nuclear weapons reached about 70,000. There are not so many these days but there are still enough to end civilisation as we know it.

Planets going rogue and abandoning their star to wander the galactic hood could actually be pretty common.