Finland’s Nonbinary Iron Age Warrior

Discovered at Finland’s Suontaka Vesitorninmäki in 1968, an Iron Age grave held the mysterious remains of a celebrated warrior whose gender puzzled scientists for decades, as the deceased was accompanied by weapons associated with men of the era and jewelry associated with women from this time period. Now, new information released by geneticist Elina Salmela of the University of Helsinki reveals that the figure was likely …

New Dragonlike Species of Dinosaur Discovered in Australia

The fossil of a massive pterosaur found a decade ago in the Australian outback has been confirmed as a previously unknown species of dinosaur. The creature—with an estimated seven-meter wingspan and “40 razor-sharp teeth”—is being compared to a dragon. To explain the size, Tim Richards (a researcher at the University of Queensland) says to picture a wingspan only slightly smaller than a hang-glider. “It would …

First-Ever Light Detected Behind a Black Hole

Most space enthusiasts are aware that nothing can escape the tremendous gravitational pull of a black hole but, for the first time ever, scientists have detected light coming from behind a black hole located 800 million light-years from Earth. While flares of light around a black hole aren’t uncommon, astrophysicist Dan Wilkins and his colleagues had been observing a particular supermassive black hole (using NASA’s …