Science

Rare blood-group variants allow most of the child blood types a chart forbids

The textbook ABO rule forbids at least one child blood type for every pairing of parent types except A with B. Rare inherited variants, chiefly the Bombay phenotype and cis-AB, reach most of those forbidden combinations, at population rates of a few children in a thousand even where they cluster.

8 Oct 2026 · 6 min read

Statistics

Generation charts disagree on a third of post-war birth years

Pew, McCrindle, the US Census Bureau and Indonesia's statistics office give different generation labels, or none, for 27 of the 81 birth years from 1946 to 2026. Singapore draws its own Pioneer and Merdeka Generation lines by birth date and citizenship date, and none of them falls on a Pew boundary.

7 Oct 2026 · 6 min read

Science

Animals Probably Arose 800 to 700 Million Years Ago, Long Before Their Oldest Fossils

Scientists have long disagreed over when the first animals appeared. A new study argues that a key fossil site was misread, pushing the likely start back to around the Snowball Earth ice ages.

7 Oct 2026 · 4 min read

Science

People Bend the Facts to Suit Their Choices, and the Selfish Version Spreads Faster

In nine experiments with 8,769 adults, those who kept more for themselves played down the cost to others. When shown such estimates, other participants became more selfish too.

3 Oct 2026 · 4 min read

Statistics

Division codes from China's Ministry of Civil Affairs survive renames and change with a place's type

China's Ministry of Civil Affairs gives province-, prefecture- and county-level units six-digit codes, and all but one of the prefecture- and county-level codes in its 2023 list sit in the number band its rules set for that kind of unit. When a code changes, why an older ID number can begin with a retired code, and where the official list is published now.

3 Oct 2026 · 6 min read

Science

Snowball Earth's Cold Could Fake the Signs of Glacial Erosion, a Science Paper Argues

Geologists have argued that ancient ice sheets scraped 3 to 5 km off the continents. A Science paper says freezing the crust could leave the same cooling signal with little rock removed.

3 Oct 2026 · 4 min read

Statistics

Malaysia's open postcode list names 2,930 codes

MCMC's open postcode list names 2,930 Malaysian postcodes. How the first two digits mark the state, the one code outside its state's block, who owns the system, why the last three digits follow no published scheme, and the town names shared by two states.

3 Oct 2026 · 4 min read

Statistics

Converting Japanese era years, and why Japanese law still names Heisei 72

Reiwa 8 is 2026: add 2018, and 1988, 1925, 1911 or 1867 for the earlier eras. The four days when the era changed and the instrument behind each, why no offset works before 1873, how the dates are written, and the 302 laws in force that still name Heisei years the era never reached.

3 Oct 2026 · 7 min read

Science

Waves, Not Just Tides, Decide Where Mangroves Can Take Root on Open Coasts

Where mangroves grow has mostly been explained by the tides. A Nature study of 400 coastal sites finds that on exposed shores, seedlings also need long calm spells at sea to anchor.

2 Oct 2026 · 5 min read

Science

Antarctica's Net Ice Loss This Century Is Locked In, Even With Deep Emission Cuts

How much Antarctica will add to sea level is a major unknown. A new study finds its ice loss this century is very likely locked in, and extra snowfall will not offset it.

1 Oct 2026 · 4 min read