Fiona MacDonald
ScienceAlert
Sydney, NSW, Australia
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Past articles by Fiona:
Physicists Claim Creation of a Superconductor at Near-Ambient Conditions
Few discoveries in science would revolutionize technology as much as a material that achieves superconductivity at room temperature, under relatively mild pressures. → Read More
Hypnotizing Underwater Footage Shows Rapidly Melting Cracks Below 'Doomsday' Glacier
New footage has revealed Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier is shrinking from below in a way scientists hadn't expected – with melting happening rapidly along the cracks and crevasses in its base. → Read More
Haunting Unseen Footage of The Titanic Is Being Released Right Now: Watch Live
The wreck of the ill-fated RMS Titanic has long fascinated historians, oceanographers, and filmmakers alike. → Read More
Rare Dinosaur Fossil Found With Perfectly Preserved Final Meal Inside
Around 120 million years ago, four-winged dinosaurs roughly the size of crows called Microraptors stalked the ancient woodlands of what is now China. → Read More
Tuesday's Rare 'Blood Moon' Eclipse Will Be The Last Until 2025! Here's How to Watch
We've been treated to spectacular skywatching in 2022, with the rare alignment of five planets in June, and a total lunar eclipse back in May. → Read More
William Shatner Felt Crushed When He Finally Made It to Space. Here's Why
William Shatner has made headlines this week with the announcement that his trip into space wasn't the celebration or high note he thought it would be – instead, it felt like a "funeral for planet Earth". → Read More
Unexpected Activity in 'Dead' Bacteria Detected by Scientists
Scientists have detected unexpected activity in dormant bacteria spores, showing for the first time that even when they're physiologically 'dead', the organisms are still aware of their surroundings. → Read More
In The Middle of a Powerful Hurricane, Tampa Bay Is Dry. Here's The Science.
As Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida on Wednesday afternoon and residents braced for what could be days of threatening weather, the shallow estuary of Tampa Bay on the state's west coast was eerily transformed into a vast mud flat. → Read More
People's Brains Sync Up When Gaming Together, Even When Nobody's There
It's been easy to feel disconnected over the past two and a half years, despite all the hours spent doing Zoom trivia and online gaming with friends. → Read More
Cancers in Adults Under 50 Have Increased Dramatically Around The Globe
Cancer has long been part of the human story. → Read More
Unexpected Solar Wind Stream Hits Earth at 372 Miles Per Second
On Sunday, Earth's magnetic field was pelted by a solar wind stream reaching velocities of more than 600 kilometers (372 miles) per second. → Read More
Part of a Massive, Uncontrolled Rocket Will Crash to Earth This Sunday. Here's What We Know
This weekend, a massive, uncontrolled rocket booster is predicted to hurtle back to Earth, with a high chance that at least some of the debris will be large enough to survive the descent and smash into our planet. → Read More
Scientists Are Perplexed by Mysterious Holes They Keep Finding on The Ocean Floor
During a recent expedition to the largely unexplored depths of the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge, marine researchers stumbled upon something odd: tiny holes excavated in the sediment, all arranged in dozens of relatively straight lines. → Read More
An AI Just Independently Discovered Alternate Physics
Grab any physics textbook and you'll find formula after formula describing how things wobble, fly, swerve and stop. The formulas describe actions we can observe, but behind each could be sets of factors that aren't immediately obvious. → Read More
Dietary Supplement Cuts Risk of Hereditary Cancer by 60%, Scientists Find
A trial spanning more than 20 years and almost 1,000 participants worldwide has found an important result – people with a condition that gives them a higher chance of developing certain cancers can reduce the risk of some of those cancers by more → Read More
Webb Accidentally Spied a Stunning Side View of a Galaxy in Its First Image Drop
If you're still geeking out over the first release of full-color James Webb Space Telescope images, you're not alone. This week we were treated with the very first image unveiling, shortly followed by four other brand new images that show our Univer → Read More
After Years of Searching, Physicists Observe Electrons Flow Into Fluid-Like Whirlpools
For the first time, physicists have witnessed something incredibly exciting: electrons forming whirlpools just like a fluid. → Read More
Man Vomits For Months After Taking Vitamin D at Almost 400x Daily Recommended Dose
Doctors have issued a warning that not only is it entirely possible to overdose on vitamin D, it's also incredibly dangerous, after a man in the UK was hospitalized as a result of taking almost 400 times the daily recommended vitamin D. → Read More
Breathtaking New Images Show Giant 'Claw Marks' on The Surface of Mars
While it still has plenty of mysteries for us to solve, Mars is becoming clearer to us every day, thanks to the dozen functioning robots we currently have either on the red planet's surface or in its orbit. → Read More
Extreme 'Black Widow' Pulsar Detected Just 3,000 Light-Years Away
There are some strange objects lurking in our galaxy, and astronomers have just spied an extreme new candidate roughly 3,000 to 4,000 light-years away. → Read More