Venus flytrap plants can 'count' to five

Venus flytraps and other carnivorous plants have the ability to count, according to a new study.* The discovery adds to the growing body of evidence that certain plants possess many animal-like abilities, even though they do not have brains.

* Blogger Note: This is not a new finding.  It has been known for decades and reported as such in the early documentaries of David Attenborough.

'Dark noodles' between stars in the Milky Way could be missing matter

Mysterious lumps in gas clouds connecting stars in the Milky Way could comprise a significant amount of the galaxy's missing matter.

Evidence of new giant planet lurking beyond Neptune

Our solar system may have a ninth planet about 10 times the mass of Earth far out beyond Neptune.  Although the planet, dubbed Planet Nine, has not been directly observed, computer simulations of the orbits of several distant objects beyond Neptune indicate it exists.

One planet orbits 1 trillion kilometres away from its star

A distant planet thought to be floating free through space is not so lonely after all, according to a new study that indicates it actually orbits a star a trillion kilometres away from it. The planet, designated 2MASS J2126-8140, takes nearly a million Earth years to orbit its sun, making it easily the largest solar system yet found. 

Woolly mammoth remains indicate humans inhabited the Arctic at least 45,000 years ago

The frozen carcass of a woolly mammoth found in Siberia with unmistakable signs of spear wounds is providing evidence people inhabited Arctic regions thousands of years earlier than previously thought.

Milky Way growth chart reveals how galaxy evolved

Scientists have made a cosmic growth chart of the Milky Way, an innovative blending of data collected by the ongoing Sloan Digital Sky Survey and a new technique to determine the ages of stars.  The analysis shows the galaxy's central disc formed from the inside out, with red giant stars as old as about 13 billion years clustered toward the centre and younger stars about 1 billion years old closer to the disc's edge.

Possible gravitational wave signal

Not for the first time, the world of physics is abuzz with rumours that gravitational waves have been detected.