In the 1933 classic King Kong, a giant gorilla terrorizes New York City, towering above trucks and houses and standing menacingly atop the Empire State Building. Since then, the idea of animals larger than human-made structures has fascinated us. From the giant reptiloid Godzilla and insectoid Mothra to the fish-like Sea Kings in One Piece, colossal creatures are a recurring theme across media.
The power of invisibility has been wielded by countless fictional heroes—and many have wondered about bringing that power into the real world. Making the body turn invisible on its own sounds out of the question, but what about instances where characters disappear with the help of special invisibility-granting clothing or covers? Would it be possible to harness technology to invent something similar? Numerous scientists have been diving deep into optics—the study of light—to answer that question.
Shapeshifting creatures are amazing, and they’re not just in our favourite books or movies— they’re all around us. Many animals have the ability to change size and shape, allowing them to do things from scaring off predators to unlocking new abilities. Some of them, like the pufferfish, are famous for their ability, but there are other lesser-known shapeshifters that are just as awesome. Here’s a look at some of the lesser-known members of this shapeshifting team—and the ways they perform this fantastic feat.
Immortality has always been one of those topics in science fiction that seemed a little too fantastical to ever be true. Maybe it’s not as full of paradoxes as time travel, or riddled with hypothetical questions like extra-terrestrials, but the concept of eternal life has long been seemingly rooted in our primal fear of death. Ever since humans could write, we’ve been fascinated with the preservation of life; from the ancient myths of the Fountain of Youth to the worship of everlasting deities, this fascination has truly stood the tests of time. Now that we finally have the knowledge and technology to potentially make immortality a reality, researchers are looking for ways to bring it out of science fiction and into the real world.
When Charles Darwin published his book Insectivorous Plants in the late 19th century, the idea of meat-eating flora larger than life soon captured the imaginations of creators. Plants capable of devouring human beings became a regular subject of periodical pieces, and featured in stories by famous authors Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells. The idea of the man-eating plant has continued to endure in fiction—perhaps most famously in the musical film Little Shop of Horrors, where a sentient plant introduced into a flower shop demands the blood of its owner and soon begins to devour those around him.
I’ve got news for you: you are a mutant! Yes, you read that correctly! Every human being is technically a mutant due to the naturally occurring mutations in our genes. And, we have been using this natural process as a spark for our creativity through science fiction. Science fiction is a genre of media in which science is used to enhance the products of our imagination. But sometimes, these ideas can seem more like fiction than science. For instance, the superpowers we see in literary universes can look utterly implausible.
What’s your go-to move when you’re trying to flirt with someone? Are you the type that likes to make them laugh? Maybe you prefer the calm and collected approach, or maybe you go the direct route — no matter which you prefer, these all have one thing in common: the desire to impress. You might think that this is something that is unique to humans; however, there is one species that shares our desire to impress and takes it to the extremes: birds-of-paradise.
13.8 billion years ago, our universe began. Then followed particles… then galaxies… then stars… then planets. One of these planets, formed 4.5 million years ago, witnessed the birth of our first human ancestors around 3.2 million years. Over these years, our brains evolved to understand emotions, communicate with others, create meaning out of trivial matters, and read online articles pondering their own existence. This seems to be an accurate summary of our existence, right?
Nightmares are no rare phenomenon; every one of us has at some point been forced to confront the monsters under our beds. Medically, a typical nightmare is nothing to be afraid of. Even recurring nightmares are perfectly normal.
When I first watched Jurassic Park as a kid, I wasn’t at all worried about dinosaurs becoming a problem in the future. It was just science fiction after all, surely we can’t bring an extinct animal back to life! As time passed, the movie started becoming more of a cautionary tale and less fictional as the progress of scientific advancements continued to accelerate. In a world with climbing extinction rates yet remarkable technological innovations, it seems that the resurrection of extinct species is the solution to the extinction problem, but is it really a solution free of consequences?