The Weird Science Drop #4 đ§Ș Thursday 15 May 2025
đ Don't trust a pretty face đ Flying cars are here â Chat to the Almighty via the God Helmet đ° Plus, how fast does it take to become a billionaire
âJeÂŽky!* Welcome to issue 4 of The Weird Science Drop. Science is weird, and hereâs the proof. This shiny new newsletter will deliver crazy chemistry, bonkers biology, foolish physics and lots more straight to your inbox every week. So please subscribe. You wonât be mad to, even if the stories featured most likely will be!â
Daniel
A selfie can be used as a tool to help doctors determine a patientâs âbiological ageâ and judge how well they may respond to cancer treatment, so says a new study. Because we all age at âdifferent ratesâ our physical appearance may help give insights into how old you are physiologically. The new FaceAge AI tool can estimate a personâs biological age, as opposed to their actual age, by scanning an image of their face.
Weird Science News â
đ Letâs start on a cheery note. The end of the universe. According to Stephen Hawkingâs theory, the entirety of existence will at some point just evaporate and fade away into nothingness. So a bit like my career - or Arsenalâs season. Mathematicians have now plugged in the numbers and calculated when everything goes kaput: 1 followed by 78 zeroes years. This means you have plenty of time to read the full story on Discover
đ Always falling for the wrong person? And I mean, really the wrong person? Well, a new study warns it might be wise not to be distracted by a pretty face as the most attractive people could be the ones you should avoid the most. People with sinister personality traits like narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism (known as the âDark Triadâ) were often seen as more trustworthy as they were âbetter lookingâ than the good eggs. Read more on ECR
đŒ Scientists have discovered an essential component of medical marijuana in a common Brazilian weed. Cannabidiol, known as CBD, is used to treat epilepsy, chronic pain and anxiety, and is a main active compound in cannabis. And now itâs been found in the fruit and flowers of Trema micrantha Blume - an average shrub and annoyance to many South American and Central American gardeners. Molecular biologist Rodrigo Moura Neto said:
"It's a legal alternative to using cannabis. This is a plant that grows all over Brazil. It would be a simpler and cheaper source of cannabidiol."
đ How many moons does the Earth have? It was the one QI question the answer to which was forever changing. And itâs going to change again as a 'population' of minimoons is now thought to be lurking near our planet. A space rock discovered orbiting us last year was blown off the moon during a giant impact long ago, hinting that a hidden family of lunar fragments could be living nearby. Read more on Space
đ You can file this in the believe it or not section, but in the ocean it never stops snowing. Well, kind of. If youâre plumbing the deep, dark depths you will see a constant downfall of what very much looks like the white stuff. However, itâs really a mix of dead microscopic organisms, faeces, mucus, fish scales and other organic âstuffâ. Not as nice, granted, but great news for deep-sea urchins, worms and other creatures. You can see for yourself on Discover Wildlife
Weird Scientist: Michael Persinger and his God Helmet đš+â= âȘ+đŁ
Now I haven't a clue if God exists, but I'm pretty sure most people, religious or otherwise, have at some point wished they could sit the big being down for a cosy chat.
If I had the chance, I'd ask Him where I left my keys and why He forgot to mention the dinosaurs in the Bible. Anyway, I digress. As prayer seems to be a one-way conversation, scientist Michael Persinger decided he wanted a more interactive experience with the Almighty.
The cognitive neuroscience researcher lost the senses he was studying when he made the madcap choice to turn a snowmobile helmet into a doorway to God Himself.
Pop the 'God Helmet' on and you could be having tea and biscuits with our creator or his right-hand son, Jesus. Persinger wanted to recreate the out-of-body experience people close to death have reported, as well as the walk into the 'light'.
The helmet uses magnetic fields to mess with your head. Eighty per cent of those who have dared to don the strange device say they felt an ethereal presence in the room which they say is either God or a dead loved one.
As you would expect, the scientific community frowned upon the idea of zapping people's minds until they feel like The Lord is 'in the house'. A team of Swedes was unable to replicate Persinger's findings, and infamous God-basher Richard Dawkins was not impressed at all when he had a go.
Water, water everywhere⊠on Mars
Mars had oceans, seas, lakes and puddles back in the day. But what about now? Thereâs not much chance of any liquid H2O hanging around The Red Planet these daysâŠor so we thought. Seismic waves from deep underground hint that an oceanâs worth of liquid water is hiding below the surface.
If the findings are right, the total volume of hidden water could flood the whole of Mars' surface with an ocean almost 800 metres deep.
This would solve the tricky question of what happened to all the water. Billions of years ago much of it vanished into space or got trapped in ice but scientists have never been able to account for all of the missing moisture.
The liquid water is some five miles below the surface, so not exactly accessible, but if we could get at it, what would we find?
Read more on the underground ocean on Live Science
Apologies for going un-sciencey but Iâm going to share a hunch. There was life on Mars. Not aliens in spaceships. Microbes. And Iâm guessing that where you find liquid water, even in the harshest environment, youâll still find them now.
The big question down the line is: does life on Earth and life on Mars share a common ancestor? If we do then thatâs cool, we can all say we are Martians and vice versa. But if we donât and life really did pop up separately on two little balls of rock in a quiet galactic neighbourhood, then itâs a slam dunk that life is everywhere.
Photo of the Week đ·
Our future is here (almost). The worldâs first mass-produced flying car has been unveiled - the AirCar. Created by Slovakia-based Klein Vision, the vehicle has successfully completed over 170 flight hours and more than 500 takeoffs and landings.
It can transform from a car to an aircraft in less than two minutes, with the first units expected to be available to buy in 2026. Sign me up! Wait, they sell for ÂŁ750k? Sigh. The future will have to wait a little longer for most of usâŠ
For your eye holes đ
We in the media love the word âboffinâ. Itâs fun to write and fun to say. But others arenât fans. Sixty Symbols investigates whether science should see it as a dirty word.
Infographic Magic đ
Iâm claiming economics as a science for at least this week đ
Cool Quote đŁ
âIn physics, you donât have to go around making trouble for yourself â nature does it for you.â
Weird Science Factoid đ€Ż
There are more bacterial cells in your body than human cells.
Weird Science Fries on the Side đ (aka the best of the rest)
Sperm have a heat-activated switch that may be key to fertility
Archaeologists finally gain access to a mystery chamber beneath Galician Castle
Planet Discovered Orbiting a Star Speeding Out of the Galaxy at 1.2 Million MPH
Amazonâs Vulcan Robots Now Stow Items Faster Than Humans
Strange structures found lurking beneath Antarctic ice
About The Weird Science Drop đ
Science is weird, and hereâs the proof. The Weird Science Drop goes where other, more-sensible newsletters fear to tread. Every week, we grab our trusty white lab coat, a bunch of bubbling test tubes and world-ending robot prototype to go in search for the overlooked, under-the-radar and, above all else, most madcap science news, views and research.
About me đŽ
Daniel Smith is an old experienced journalist who has worked for a host of news publishers on both sides of the Atlantic. A long, long time ago, he fancied himself as an astrophysicist but instead turned out to be the worst scientist since the man who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world by pressing the big red button but is safely behind a desk writing this newsletter, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... The Weird Science Drop..
The most-visited links from the last newsletter đ
The Weird Science Drop edition: 4
* Good morning in Mam, an indigenous language of Guatemala.
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