Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. There are plenty of annual recap lists circulating around this time of year, but few of them involve the amount of work put in by California's Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). Over the past year, researchers guided remotely operated vehicles more than 3,000 feet down to survey the vast biodiversity within some of the oceans' deepest and darkest regions. The data and footage collected during these trips will help experts fill in the gaps towards understanding the planet's hardest-to-reach ecosystems. To celebrate the past 12 months of discoveries, MBARI released a video highlighting some of 2025's most stunning, strange, and mysterious creature sightings.

Ant evolution favored large colonies over individual strength. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Here's a fun (and creepy) fact: The Earth is home to approximately 20 quadrillion ants . To put zeroes on it, that's around 20,000,000,000,000,000 of the six-legged insects living all around us. How did such diminutive creatures attain their prominent--and ecologically vital -role on the planet?

'We essentially have 102 new maps of the entire sky.' Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. NASA aimed big for its SPHEREx's first 3D cosmic map . Only six months after starting operations, the orbital space telescope has completed its inaugural infrared scan of the entire sky. Although infrared isn't visible to the human eye, the map's 102 wavelengths remain detectable across the universe--to the right instruments. "It's incredible how much information SPHEREx has collected in just six months--information that will be especially valuable when used alongside our other missions' data to better understand our universe," Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA, said in a statement .

The interstellar object is still soaring through our solar system. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. It's understandable why every space agency and astronomy enthusiast around the world is trying to catch a glimpse of 3I/ATLAS . Not only is it the third-known interstellar object to pass through our solar system,it's also the fastest comet ever recorded . But even as it races at 130,00 miles per hour towards its closest distance from Earth, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope recently caught another stunning glimpse of the icy rock.

Science Dinosaurs Why did this ancient bird die with tiny rocks in its throat? The 120-million-year-old fossil may also be a choking hazard PSA. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Fossils may reveal what type of animal died millions of years ago, but they rarely depict exactly they perished. Even rarer are the examples that clearly showcase an animal's exact cause of death.

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Rubbing a black snail on a wart and impailing the creature with a thorn will make the bumps go away. Giving a donkey some bread will treat whooping cough . Mumps can be cured if you rub your head on the back of a pig . They may sound a bit strange now, but folk remedies like these are an important part of human history.

More than just rats and fleas added to the'perfect storm' plague. Photograph of the fresco Trionfo della Morte, taken at its original location in the Camposanto Monumentale in Pisa. The fresco, known as the "Triumph of Death" and attributed to the painter Buonamico Buffalmacco, is not precisely dated; scholarly estimates range from 1335 to 1350. While it does not depict the Black Death explicitly, the selected detail shows victims of an epidemic from diverse social backgrounds, their souls carried off by demons. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday.

Diabetes patients could monitor glucose with lightwaves. Future versions of the noninvasive prototype may be as small as a watch. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. A new, noninvasive blood-glucose monitoring system may allow people with diabetes to finally ditch their painful finger pricks and under the skin sensors. Although the current iteration is comparatively bulky, MIT scientists writing in the journal say they are well on their way to scaling down their invention.

It's still not aliens, but the interstellar comet keeps getting weirder. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. As comet 3I/ATLAS continues its exciting journey through our solar system, scientists are still learning everything they can about this special space rock. It is only the second interstellar object ever tracked through our solar system and is among the fastest comets ever observed. As the 3I/ATLAS nears its closest distance to Earth, an international team of astronomers now says the space rock may be covered in active, icy cryovolcanoes.

Environment Animals Pets Dogs Pet dogs can help teens' mental health Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. It's old news that having a dog provides a lot of benefits. Playing with a pooch can help our brains concentrate and relax, a family dog can help prevent food allergies in children, and even fulfill our primal need to nurture. They also may have some sway over some of the tiniest organisms around--the microbes that live in our bodies. A study published December 3 in the journal found that the family dog prompts changes in our gut microbiome that result in better mental health.