Fatty tissue has been found in the lungs of overweight and obese people for the first time. Australian researchers analysed lung samples from 52 people and found the amount of fat increased in line with body mass index. They said their findings could explain why being overweight or obese increased asthma risk. Lung experts said it would be interesting to see if the effect could be reversed by weight loss. They found that it would only be possible if they lost 19kg in 2 days; around the loss of Tenzing Norgay in his voyage on mout Everest.

In late September 2019, a tiny Fiordland penguin washed up on a beach in Victoria, 170 kilometres west of Melbourne, Australia. It had swam all the way from the South Island of New Zealand. Scientists found it struggling by some rocks well underweight. The penguin has now regained its species usual 3.5kg weight in his time at Melbourne Zoo. The Fiordland penguin swam 2500 kilometres before arriving in the shallows of Kennett River. To gain his muscles back, they released him into water, at first just a bathtub but gradually a swimming pool. This feat is unusual as penguins of his kind rarely leave the island by more than 150 kilometres. It is now ready to complete its 2500 kilometre journey home. Scientists have micro chipped him so that they can find out if it returns successfully. "We are hoping that this penguin will get home and breed." Dr Michael Lynch, a zoologist working at Melbourne Zoo, told the Guardian Newspaper. The scientists in charge of restoring his normal weight claimed that he ate 20 to 25 percent of his own bodyweight. After eight weeks, it will finally be released back into the wild. It has now been taken to Phillip Island National Parks to build up its muscle strength in larger pools. By : Charlie  

In November 2017 a study was published about a star explosion normally known as a super nova that came back to life. It was called LP 40-365 and puzzled scientists. Not all stars explode but those with a mass 8 times those of the sun do so over time. Never had they known one to come back to like. But in July 2019, Scientists observed another 3 such Zombie Stars. Their research has been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. So what is so special about these nova? Usually a super nova reaches its peak brightness then fades in about 100 days but those IPTF14HLS  super nova have been around for at least 2 years and instead of gradually fading they became brighter in 200 and 400 days. Way back in 1954 researchers spotted some other zombie stars in the same area, but nothing much was done about understanding them. If it turns out to be part of the same super nova then theses zombies would have been exploding and coming back to like for around  60 years and are probably 30 times the mass of our sun. These stars would have undergone a change into rapid tuning neutron stars called magnetars.  Another theory is that the exploding stars had 100 X mass more than the earth's sun meaning that these types of stars are still being made today proving that not all novas have reached their brightness peak. Whoa this is crazy but amazing. By Santiago

Scientists at the Humboldt University of Berlin have discovered that rats love to play hide and seek. The adorable little rodents were taught to play the game by scientists. The rats are rewarded with tickles and treats. Sometimes, the rats would continue playing the game for fun when no reward was involved! They gave a leap of joy and giggled when they found the human or were caught by one. They have learnt how to play the game and memorise where the human hid last time. They scamper there first the next time. In conclusion, I think that having a rat as a pet would be awesome!

On the 7th of February, this year, a rover that will land on Mars, was named after historic scientist Rosalind Franklin. The rover is an a unmanned ship that will look deeper into life on Mars. The European Space Agency (ESA) has named it after her for the fascinating research that she did on the human body. Rosalind Franklin was born on the 25th of July, 1920, in Notting Hill, in London. From a young age, she knew she wanted to be a scientist. Her father discouraged the idea as in that time, it wasn't acceptable for a woman to have that type of career. She was extremely intelligent and went to study at St Paul's Girls school and the University of Cambridge (where she earned a Ph.D in physical chemistry). Her research and the work of James Watson and Francis Crick, led to the discovery of the DNA double helix. Because of this, she has become extremely famous, therefore having a rover named after her in her honour. The Exomars will be an incredible rover which will be searching for any signs, or hope, of life on Mars. The Rosalind Franklin will be different to any other rover before as it will be able to combine the capability to roam around the red planet as well as study beneath the surface. Hopefully it will find a droplet of water or some bacteria that will show that we are able to survive on Mars. British engineers are hoping to have the finished rover ready by July. This is an amazing breakthrough with both engineering and science.        

The lake in Melbourne's Westgate Park (which is a man made lake) has naturally turned incredibly bright pink in the recent weeks.The lake has become a tourist attraction for all and has apparently become a hit on Instagram (great for getting likes).  Since 2013, the lake's environmental conditions have produced a red pigment called beto carotene which give the water a pink hue. The vivid color  is being produced by sunlight which causes warm temperatures and low rainfall. Tourists flock to the area and some visitors bizarrely dress up to help their photos to look better against the pink background.  

A startling discovery of yet another dead grey whale on San Francisco Bay’s Ocean Beach was made May 6th, 2019. This is the ninth grey whale to wash up dead on these shores since March 2019. This particular whale is thought to have been killed by an impact with a ship, however, also showed signs of malnutrition. Examinations carried out by the The Marine Mammal Center show that four of the other whales were killed by an impact with ships, three by malnutrition and one by causes yet determined. It was also noted that it is usual for 1-3 whales to be found dead in this area during the entire migration season which puts the current count at three times the normal rate. Grey whales normally migrate through the San Francisco area twice yearly in Decembers/January and again in April/May. The whales are travelling from their feeding ground in Alaska to their breeding ground in Baja, California which is 11 000 miles away. Scientists are speculating that the grey whales  are having trouble finding food in Alaska and as a result do not have enough nourishment to make the long journey to Baja. Scientists have also observed the whales feeding in San Francisco waters,  giving birth in the open ocean prior to arriving at their breeding ground and as a result arriving later in Baja, all of which are highly unusual activity for these mammals. It appears that the death of the whales were caused by human activity either by direct impact with ships  or indirectly by climate change. Although grey whale populations are currently stable, marine scientists are fearful that this might not be the case for long.  

Whilst most of us have been busy taking closeup selfies, scientists have been busy taking images of something 500 million trillion miles away; a black hole. This incredible phenomenon has been described by scientists as "a monster" because of its massive diameter of about 40 billion km (three times that of the Earth) and was photographed by a network of eight telescopes across the world. Profesor Heino Falcke, from Radboud University in the Netherlands, told BBC News that the black hole was found in a galaxy called M87. "What we see is larger than the size of our entire Solar System," he said. "It has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun and it is one of the heaviest black holes that we think exists. It is an absolute monster, the heavyweight champion of black holes in the Universe." Surrounding the perfectly circular black hole is, in the words of Professor Falcke, "a ring of fire." The mesmerising halo was formed by superheated gas, falling into the hole. The white - hot flames are one million times brighter than all the stars in our galaxy combined, scientists told BBC News. A team of 200 scientists is now imaging another enormous black hole at the centre of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Despite how it sounds, this is harder than getting an image from a distant galaxy 55 million light-years away. This is because, for some unknown reason, the "ring of fire" around the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way is smaller and dimmer; therefore harder to picture and harder to reach. I think I'll stick to taking selfies!

Every year we celebrate an International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This day, which falls on the 11th February, is a reminder that women and girls play a critical role in science and that their contribution needs to be celebrated. Here are a few women from the present and the past who have well and truly left their mark in the world of science. Alice Ball Long ago, there was no cure for leprosy, a disease that attacks the body and can leave victims terribly disfigured. Because there was no treatment and people believed leprosy was very contagious, sufferers used to isolated in leper colonies with nothing to do but wait for death-or for a cure to be found. In search of that cure, was an incredibly talented Hawaiian chemist who was studying the properties of the oil extracted from the chaulmoogra tree. This oil had been used in many Chinese herbal cures and a couple of times on lepers which the results would always differ. Alice's question was why didn't it always work every time. Alice teamed up with a surgeon from a hospital to try and find the answer to that question. She developed a way to separate the active elements of the chaulmoogra oil and created a new extract that could be injected directly into the patients bloodstream-with incredible results. Unfortunately, Alice died before she was able to publish her findings so the University of Hawaii did it for her-without giving her any credit. Many years later, her contribution was recognised and now Hawaii even celebrate Alice Ball Day on February 29 every four years. Caroline Herschel Though she was only 1.2 metres tall, she made up for her small stature with her contribution to our understanding of space and the world beyond. Born in Germany, 1750, she was 22 the year she left to join her brother William, in the English city of Bath to train as a singer, but it was soon astronomy that took the focus of their lives. She worked as a assistant to William, recording his observations and helping him produce more accurate lenses to search the endless sky. Between them they were able to record around 2,500 new nebulae and star clusters. She then became an independent astronomer and was the first woman to discover a comet. In recognition of her work she was employed by King George III in 1787 as William's assistant making her become the first woman ever to be paid for scientific work. In total she discovered 14 new nebulas, eight comets and added 561 new stars to Flamsteeds Atlas. Caroline's contribution has been honoured many times, including a gold medal from the Royal Astronomical Society in 1838. She also has a comet, an asteroid, a crater on the moon and a space telescope named after her. Jane Goodall Attitudes towards wildlife and animal conservation has changed dramatically in recent years thanks to the research and dedication of scientists in the are of biology and zoology such as Chimpanzee lover, Jane Goodall. From childhood Jane yearned for a life among African wildlife away from the war-stricken England she was born into. As she was unable to afford going to university, Jane settled to the job of a secretary. When 23, she had saved up enough money to go to Kenya where she met renowned anthropologist and palaeontologist Dr Louis S B Leakey. Leakey impressed and amazed with Jane's enthusiasm and knowledge, embarked alongside her on an investigation of wild chimpanzees in Gombe at a time where the concept of a young woman cohabiting with wild and unknown African animals was preposterous.

It may be painful, but there could be an unusual upside to appendicitis; those who have had their appendix removed are 20% less likely to develop Parkinson's disease. This is according to a new analysis of more than 1 million people in Sweden. Parkinson's disease is a disease that makes you shake all over and can lead to abnormal brain activity.In conclusion, appendicitis can be a good thing in some ways.