Articles for author: Jan Otte

Close-up of a white-eared opossum perched on a tree branch in the natural setting of a Brazilian countryside.

Pest Patrol with a Pouch: How Opossums Quietly Help Humans

Jan Otte

In the shadowy corners of suburban neighborhoods, a misunderstood hero waddles through the night. While most people sleep peacefully in their beds, these ancient marsupials are busy performing one of nature’s most valuable services. Armed with nothing but their appetite and immunity, opossums work tirelessly to keep our communities safer and healthier. Yet despite their ...

The Nazca Lines of Peru: Giant Geoglyphs That Can Only Be Seen From the Sky

Jan Otte

Imagine standing in the middle of the Peruvian desert, surrounded by endless stretches of barren land, completely unaware that beneath your feet lies one of the most extraordinary mysteries of the ancient world. The Nazca Lines stretch across more than 450 square kilometers of desert plateau, yet their true magnificence remains invisible to anyone walking ...

Orion Nebula

Did James Webb Spot Ghosts in Space? New Simulations Suggest These Mysterious ‘Rogue’ Objects May Not Exist

Jan Otte

Astronomers were confused when the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) first saw strange, free-floating pairs of Jupiter-sized objects in 2023. These strange cosmic objects, called “JuMBOs” (Jupiter-mass binary objects), seemed to go against the usual ideas about how planets form because they didn’t have a parent star and were drifting through space in tight gravitational ...

Gloved hands carefully handling a blood sample in a medical or laboratory environment.

Scientists Discover a Brand-New Blood Type Found in Only One Person on Earth

Jan Otte

French scientists have discovered a blood type so rare that just one living person on Earth is known to have it. This is a medical discovery that seems like something out of science fiction. This 48th recognized blood group system, called “Gwada negative,” was found in a 68-year-old lady from Guadeloupe, a French Caribbean island, ...

Black and white image of a woman patient in a hospital bed with a nasal cannula.

Why Are More Young People Getting Cancer? Scientists Investigate

Jan Otte

People thought for a long time that cancer was a disease that only older people got, mostly in their later years. But something troubling is happening: more adults under 50 are being diagnosed with cancer than ever before. Researchers are scrambling for answers as the number of early-onset cases of breast, colorectal, kidney, and uterine ...

Dublin underground tunnels

The Forgotten Tunnel Network Beneath Dublin: What’s Hidden Below the Streets?

Jan Otte

Beneath the bustling streets of Dublin, a city known for its rich history and vibrant culture, lies a mysterious labyrinth of tunnels that many have forgotten. These subterranean passages, hidden from the daily hustle and bustle, hold secrets that date back centuries. As you walk above, the ground beneath your feet is a silent witness ...

star HD 100453

Alcohol Cloud in Deep Space May Be Key to Life on Earth, Say Scientists

Jan Otte

A young star is surrounded by a swirling disk of gas and dust in the depths of the cosmos. This disk is full of alcohol. Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found methanol, an important organic molecule, in the protoplanetary disk of a star called HD 100453. This star is 330 light-years ...

a new device intended to detect disease biomarkers in air samples

Game-Changing Breath Sensor Could Detect Diabetes, Asthma and More

Jan Otte

Picture a time when you can figure out what’s wrong with you just by breathing into a small device. You could find out about your health in minutes without having to draw blood or take invasive tests. All you had to do was exhale. The Airborne Biomarker Localization Engine (ABLE) is a new device that ...

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

NASA Finds Japan’s Crashed Moon Lander — Debris Scattered Across Lunar Surface

Jan Otte

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) took the first pictures of Japan’s doomed Resilience moon lander. The pictures show a grim scene: broken pieces of the lander spread out across the moon’s surface. The spacecraft, made by the Tokyo-based company ispace, was supposed to make a historic soft landing on June 5, but it didn’t and ...