The periodic table has been given four new elements, changing one of science’s most fundamental pieces of knowledge. Elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 will now be added to the table’s seventh row and make it complete, after they were verified by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry on December 30th. The new elements were discovered by team from Japan, Russia and the USA, who will all get to name their own new elements.

All of the four new admissions are man-made. The super-heavy elements are created by shoving lighter nuclei into each other and are found in the radioactive decay - which only exists for a tiny fraction of a second before they decay into other elements.

The elements have been worked on since at least 2004, when st ...

From July 10 to September 30, a team from the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) exploration ship, Okeanos Explorer, is going to be mapping the deep waters of the Hawaiian Archipelago in the North Pacific Ocean. This largely unknown deep-sea ecosystems will be explored for the first time using robotic submersibles, as shown in the video above.

A possible vaccine for lung cancer! In a country known for cigars, lung cancer is one of the major killers in Cuba. So for the past 25 years, they’ve been developing Cimamax, which is now available freely to Cubans. According to a Phase II trial conducted in Cuba in 2008, lung cancer patients who received the vaccine lived an average of four to six months longer than those who didn’t. This led Japan and some European countries to trial the drug as well.

The drug itself is far from flawless and, by attacking a cell’s protein rather than the tumour directly, can have severe side effects, including – of all things - causing a higher risk of cancer. It might not be a "cure" in the traditional sense, but it's a way of managing the disease. What t ...

These snowflakes were spotted all over New York City. Meteorologist Chris Dolce explained that all of these sightings are due to the specific way they've fallen:

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The most venomous caterpillar in the U.S., known as the furry puss caterpillar (Megalopyge opercularis) sent many people in the eastern U.S. to the hospital last September. While these insects may look soft, their outer comb-over hides small, extremely toxic spines that stick in your skin.

Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/12/pictures/141223-animals-weirdest-oddest-2014-editors-picks/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20141230news-weirdanimals&utm_campaign=Content&sf6632689=1#/ton-ten-ww-2014-06_87174_600x450.jpg ...

The 570 foot San Jacinto Monument in Texas is taller than 3 Statues of Liberty.

Say hello to the California Red-Sided Garter Snake. Don't worry, they are only mildly venomous.