- December 27, 2025

- December 25, 2025

December 27, 2025

- Diagnostic dilemma quiz: Can you guess the diagnosis in these strange medical cases?

- The easiest constellations for beginners to spot in winter (and what you need to see them)

- Flat-headed cat not seen in Thailand for almost 30 years is rediscovered

- Neuroscience word search — Find all the parts of the brain

HEALTH

QUIZZES | NICOLETTA LANESE | DEC 27, 2025, 4:43 AM EST | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Diagnostic dilemma quiz: Can you guess the diagnosis in these strange medical cases?

Based on our "Diagnostic Dilemma" series, this quiz tests your medical know-how.

Have you been keeping up with our weekly "Diagnostic Dilemma" series? (Image credit: Janie Airey/Getty Images)

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Each week, Live Science highlights an interesting medical case report in its Diagnostic Dilemma series. We describe the patient and their symptoms, the testing and history-taking that revealed their diagnosis, their course of treatment and their ultimate health outcomes. We also highlight what makes the case unique, whether it's the rarity of the diagnosis, the unusual constellation of symptoms, or a novel therapeutic approach.

How many Diagnostic Dilemmas have you read — and can you guess the diagnosis? Take our quiz that draws from the cases we highlighted in 2025 and see if you can figure out each patient’s ailment. Tell us how you got on in the comments below.

More science quizzes

- Brain quiz: Test your knowledge of the most complex organ in the body

- Sleep quiz: How much do you know about sleep and dreams?

- What do you know about psychology's most infamous experiments? Test your knowledge in this psychology quiz.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/health/diagnostic-dilemma-quiz-can-you-guess-the-diagnosis-in-these-strange-medical-cases at Dec 29, 2025 at 2:17 AM EST.

SPACE

FEATURES | JAMIE CARTER | DEC 27, 2025, 4:43 AM EST | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

The easiest constellations for beginners to spot in winter (and what you need to see them)

From Orion and Taurus to Auriga and Perseus, here are 10 easy sets of stars to find in the Northern Hemisphere’s winter night sky.

(Image credit: Inigo Cia via Getty Images)

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On a clear winter night, the sky can look like a blanket of stars, but it isn’t a blanket — it’s a map. Constellations are the signposts to the stars, simple stick-figures that turn a random scatter of points of light into something you can recognize, remember and navigate by. Learn just a handful, and the whole winter sky begins to fall into place.

December is the ideal time to start stargazing in the Northern Hemisphere. Yes, it’s cold, but the long nights allow you to start early and give you hours of darkness, while the northern winter sky is packed with bright, easy patterns. Orion dominates in the southeast, with Taurus above and Gemini following behind, while together they form the vast Winter Circle of bright stars. High above, Cassiopeia’s crooked W and the Great Square of Pegasus mark the route to the Andromeda galaxy and the rich Milky Way fields of Perseus and Auriga.

You don’t need any equipment to get started — just patience, warm clothes and a willingness to look up for more than a few seconds. However, a pair of the best binoculars for stargazing, one of the best telescopes, or a smart telescope adds depth. They turn faint smudges into clusters, clouds and galaxies, and give you a reason to keep coming back.

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With a few winter constellations under your belt, the Universe stops being abstract and becomes somewhere you can actually learn your way around. Here are the easiest constellations for beginners to spot in the Northern Hemisphere’s winter night sky.

1. Orion, the Hunter

(Image credit: constellation from Starry Night software)

Hidden target: M42 (Orion Nebula)

On December and January evenings, Orion rises early and dominates the southern sky by mid-evening, making him the easiest winter landmark. Look southeast for three bright stars in a short, straight line — Orion’s Belt, made from the three equidistant stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka.

Above is reddish Betelgeuse, and below is blue-white Rigel. On the Rigel side of the belt stars, there's a fuzzy patch that appears brighter when viewed slightly to its side. This is Orion’s Sword; binoculars or a small telescope aimed at its middle will reveal the Orion Nebula (M42) as a glowing cloud lit by newborn stars.

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2. Taurus, the Bull

(Image credit: constellation from Starry Night software)

Hidden target: M45 (Pleiades)

After dark, look east, above the constellation Orion, for orange Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus. It’s set in a V-shaped cluster — the Hyades open cluster — marking the Bull’s face. Below are its horns, stretching to the stars Elnath and Tianguan.

Above Taurus is a tiny misty patch that looks like a miniature dipper — the Pleiades, also known as the “Seven Sisters” and M45. One of the easiest star clusters to see with the naked eye, through binoculars the Pleiades appear as many skywatchers see them — the night sky’s most beautiful object.

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3. Gemini, the Twins

(Image credit: constellation from Starry Night software)

Hidden target: M35 (open cluster)

Close to Taurus and Orion, find two bright stars standing side by side — Castor and Pollux, the heads of the Twins. In December 2025 and January 2026, they are easy to find because a very bright Jupiter shines close by. From them, fainter stars form stick-figure bodies.

Aim binoculars or a small telescope near the foot of the northern twin to uncover M35, a young open cluster of gravitationally bound stars that also has the name the Shoe Buckle Cluster, according to NASA.

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4. Auriga, the Charioteer

(Image credit: constellation from Starry Night software)

Hidden targets: M36, M37, M38 (open clusters)

High in the northeast to overhead, bright Capella blazes like a lantern in the winter sky as soon as it gets dark. The “Goat Star” marks one corner of Auriga, a roughly pentagonal constellation whose constituent stars are easy to see even from a city.

Sweep the southern area below Capella with binoculars or a small telescope, and you’ll come across M36, M37 and M38: three bright, open clusters that turn an apparently empty sky into anything but.

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5. Winter Triangle asterism

(Image credit: constellation from Starry Night software)

Hidden target: The colors of Sirius

Constellations are a great way to learn the night sky, but so are asterisms — easily recognizable patterns of stars. Look to the southeast after dark during winter for three bright stars — reddish Betelgeuse in Orion, Procyon in Canis Minor and dazzlingly bright Sirius in Canis Major. Together, they form the large Winter Triangle.

Point binoculars or a small telescope at Sirius, and you’ll notice it flashes in a rainbow of colors. Why? It's so very bright and so very close — just 8.6 light-years distant — that its intense starlight gets twisted by turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere, which bends starlight and makes stars twinkle. Sirius is the ultimate example.

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6. Winter Hexagon

(Image credit: constellation from Starry Night software)

Hidden target: Jupiter

Step back and join the dazzling stars of the southern sky — Rigel in Orion, Aldebaran in Taurus, Capella in Auriga, Pollux in Gemini, Procyon in Canis Minor and Sirius in Canis Major. Together they form the huge Winter Hexagon (or Winter Circle). It’s a vast shape that takes a while to find, so take your time and repeat your star-hops again and again until you’ve memorized it. It will stay with you forever and make you look forward to winter.

As a bonus this winter, put a pair of binoculars on bright Jupiter, shining brightly near Pollux in Gemini, to see four points of light — its giant moons Ganymede, Europa, Callisto and Io.

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7. Cassiopeia, the Queen

(Image credit: constellation from Starry Night software)

Hidden target: M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)

Look high in the north for a crooked “W” or “M” of five stars — the constellation Cassiopeia. It circles the North Star all night — more or less opposite the Big Dipper — and stays prominent through winter, making it a handy signpost from any site.

From the central V of the W, sweep outward toward the south with binoculars or a small telescope to find M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. This spiral galaxy, 2.5 million light-years distant, appears as a soft, elongated glow, though the darker the site you stargaze from, the brighter it will look.

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8. Ursa Major, the Great Bear

(Image credit: constellation from Starry Night software)

Hidden target: Mizar and Alcor (double star)

In late December evenings, the Big Dipper portion of Ursa Major sits low in the north-northeast, climbing higher after midnight. Look for a bright saucepan shape — three stars in the handle and four in the bowl. Mizar, the middle star in the handle, looks slightly fuzzy to the naked eye.

If you have great eyesight, you may even notice that there are actually two stars. To check that your eyes don’t deceive you, aim any pair of binoculars or a small telescope and you’ll split Mizar and Alcor cleanly into two distinct points of light. Called the “Horse and Rider” by stargazers, splitting Mizar and Alcor with the naked eye was a test of eyesight used by the ancient Arabs, according to Space.com.

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9. Great Square of Pegasus

(Image credit: constellation from Starry Night software)

Hidden target: Saturn

On early winter evenings, look west for a large, almost empty square of four medium-bright stars — Markab, Scheat, Algenib and Alpheratz — which form the vast Great Square of Pegasus. It’s sinking by late December, but still visible in the first half of the night.

In December 2025 and January 2026, it’s above something else that’s worth your attention — Saturn. Its pale golden light isn't much to look at with the naked eye, but its fabulous rings can be seen with a small 3-inch telescope at 50x magnification.

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10. Perseus, the Hero

(Image credit: constellation from Starry Night software)

Hidden target: Double Cluster (NGC 869 and NGC 884)

Look between Cassiopeia in the north and Capella in the northeast for a ragged, curved chain of stars — the constellation Perseus. It runs through the pale band of the winter Milky Way at this time of year and contains many riches.

One of these is the Double Cluster, NGC 869 and NGC 884, a faint, fuzzy patch halfway between Perseus and Cassiopeia that’s just about visible to the naked eye in a very dark sky. These two overlapping swarms of stars look terrific in binoculars or a small telescope.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/easiest-constellations-for-beginners-to-spot-in-winter at Dec 29, 2025 at 2:17 AM EST.

ANIMALS

NEWS | PATRICK PESTER | DEC 27, 2025, 4:43 AM EST | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Flat-headed cat not seen in Thailand for almost 30 years is rediscovered

Conservationists are celebrating the rediscovery of flat-headed cats in Thailand after camera traps recorded the endangered feline for the first time in almost 30 years.

Camera trap photos confirmed that flat-headed cats are still living in Thailand. (Image credit: DNP/Panthera Thailand)

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Researchers have photographed a rare cat in Thailand that hasn't been seen in the country for almost 30 years — and it's adorable.

Flat-headed cats (Prionailurus planiceps), named after their flattened foreheads, live in fragmented pockets across Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia, but they were feared extinct in Thailand.

Researchers rediscovered the cats using remote camera traps in Thailand’s Princess Sirindhorn Wildlife Sanctuary in 2024 and 2025 — the first detections in Thailand since 1995. Cat conservation organization Panthera announced the rediscovery on Friday (Dec. 26), which is also Thailand's annual Wildlife Protection Day.

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"For decades, the flat-headed cat has been classified as 'likely extinct,' but after years of sustained protection, strong scientific partnerships, and community stewardship, we can now celebrate its return to Thailand this National Wildlife Day," Suchart Chomklin, Thailand's minister of Natural Resources and Environment, said in a statement.

Flat-headed cats have webbed feet to traverse wetland habitats, such as waterlogged peat-swamp forest, where the species is thought to primarily hunt fish. However, researchers know very little about their lives. The enigmatic cat is the smallest in Southeast Asia, weighing around 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) — less than a domestic cat — and is scarcely seen by humans.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) last assessment of the species, carried out in 2014, concluded that flat-headed cats were endangered. They are primarily threatened by the loss and degradation of their wetlands and lowland forests, as well as other human pressures like overfishing and hunting.

Researchers went looking for the cats in remote areas of Thailand in what Panthera described as the "largest-ever survey of the species." The work is part of a new Panthera-led IUCN assessment of flat-headed cats, which Panthera expects to publish in early 2026.

The camera traps photographed several flat-headed cats, including a female with a cub, demonstrating that they are not only living in southern Thailand but also breeding in the region.

"Rediscovery of the flat-headed cat in southern Thailand is a significant win for conservation in Thailand and the broader southeast Asia region where the species is still found," Atthapol Charoenchansa, the director general of Thailand's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, said in the statement.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/animals/flat-headed-cat-not-seen-in-thailand-for-almost-30-years-is-rediscovered at Dec 29, 2025 at 2:17 AM EST.

HEALTH > MIND > NEUROSCIENCE

QUIZZES | NICOLETTA LANESE | DEC 27, 2025, 4:43 AM EST | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Neuroscience word search — Find all the parts of the brain

How well do you know that organ between your ears? Test your recognition of neuroscience terms with this word search.

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More puzzles and quizzes

—Brain quiz: Test your knowledge of the most complex organ in the body

—Live Science crossword puzzle: Test your knowledge on all things science with our weekly puzzle

—What do you know about psychology's most infamous experiments? Test your knowledge in this science quiz.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/health/neuroscience/neuroscience-word-search-find-all-the-parts-of-the-brain at Dec 29, 2025 at 2:17 AM EST.

December 25, 2025

- We now know much more about how our ancestor 'Lucy' lived — and died

- Guess the number quiz: Can you work out these scientific numbers and constants and top the leaderboard?

- Diagnostic dilemma: A man's bladder looked like a Christmas tree

- The 9 best things to see in the night sky with binoculars from November 2025 to January to 2026

ARCHAEOLOGY

FEATURES | KRISTINA KILLGROVE | DEC 25, 2025, 5:37 AM EST | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

We now know much more about how our ancestor 'Lucy' lived — and died

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

Fifty years after a fossil skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis was unearthed in Ethiopia, we know so much more about how this iconic species lived and died.

(Image credit: Brigid Slinger)

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From a distance, it might have looked like a small child was wending her way through the waving grass along a vast lake. But a closer look would have revealed a strange, in-between creature — a big-eyed imp with a small head and an apelike face who walked upright like a human.

She may have looked warily over her shoulder as she walked, on alert for saber-toothed cats or hyenas. She may have used her strong arms to climb the shrubby trees nearby, searching for fruit, eggs, or insects to eat. Or perhaps she simply rested on the shores of the croc-infested waters, gulping down water on a hot day.

She likely had no idea it was her last day on Earth.

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Roughly 3.2 million years later, her skeleton was unearthed by paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson and his team on the International Afar Research Expedition.

The stunningly complete fossil was nicknamed "Lucy." And her remarkable species, Australopithecus afarensis, may have been our direct ancestor. Our discoveries about Lucy have transformed our understanding of humanity's tangled family tree.

Fifty years later, we know so much more about her species. In fact, anthropologists have learned so much about Lucy and her kind that we can now paint a picture of how she lived and died.

Her last day may have been filled with companionship, but it also entailed a relentless search for food. And it was likely dominated by the ever-present fear of predators.

"I suspect that the last day in her life was filled with danger," Johanson told Live Science.

Donald Johanson excavating a fossil in 1975. (Image credit: David Brill)

Finding Lucy

The modern story of Lucy began on Nov. 24, 1974, in Hadar, Ethiopia. Johanson and then-graduate student Tom Gray stumbled upon a bone poking out of a gully. Following two weeks of careful excavation, their team recovered dozens of fossilized bones. Together, these bones made up 40% of the skeleton of a human ancestor, making it the most complete skeleton of an archaic human species that had ever been found.

Science Spotlight takes a deeper look at emerging science and gives you, our readers, the perspective you need on these advances. Our stories highlight trends in different fields, how new research is changing old ideas, and how the picture of the world we live in is being transformed thanks to science.

Pamela Alderman, another member of the expedition, suggested the team nickname the skeleton Lucy, after the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

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"And it just became iconic," Johanson said, "a moniker that everybody knew."

Lucy’s discovery transformed the study of ancient human relatives.

"I was in high school when she was found," John Kappelman, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Texas at Austin, told Live Science. "It really did reset the way paleoanthropology worked."

Lucy's skeleton, along with subsequent discoveries of other fossils of her species, have given anthropologists a wealth of information about what is essentially the halfway point in human evolution. At 3.2 million years old, Lucy and her kind lived equidistant in time from our ape ancestors and contemporary humans.

"She's our touchstone," Jeremy DeSilva, a paleoanthropologist at Dartmouth College, told Live Science. "Everything sort of comes back to her as the reference point, and she deserves it."

Donald Johanson with the “Lucy” skeleton in 1975. (Image credit: Image courtesy of the Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University.)

"A lot like us"

One thing is fairly certain: Though there were some obvious differences, Lucy looked and acted a lot like us.

"If we saw her coming out of a grocery store today, we would recognize her as upright walking and some kind of human," Johanson said.

Although her strong arms and the shape of her finger bones suggest Lucy could climb trees, her pelvis and knees were clearly adapted to walking on two feet.

The size of Lucy's thigh bone also revealed that she was only about 42 inches (1.1 meters) tall and 60 to 65 pounds (27 to 30 kilograms) — about the size of a 6- or 7-year-old child today. And the eruption of her wisdom teeth showed that, although she was in her early teens when she died, she was a fully mature young adult.

"Australopithecus in general was maturing fast," DeSilva said, "and it makes sense if you're on a landscape full of predators." In species that are frequently prey, individuals that mature faster are more likely to pass on their genes. But australopithecines were unique—while their teeth and bodies matured quickly, their brains grew more slowly, telling us that they relied quite a bit on learning for survival, DeSilva said.

Her discovery also settled a debate that was raging in the early 1970s: Did our big brains evolve before we learned to walk upright? Lucy's head, which was not much bigger than a chimp's, showed the answer was no. Our ancestors became bipedal long before they evolved large brains.

A comparison of the skeletons of Lucy (left), a chimpanzee (center) and a modern human (right). (Image credit: eLucy.org, CC BY-SA 3.0 US)

Lucy's clan

Because her skeleton was found on its own, Lucy's "social life" is a little murkier than other parts of her daily life. But many researchers think she lived in a mixed-sex group of about 15 to 20 males and females, not unlike modern-day chimpanzees do.

And although there's no direct evidence, Lucy's skeletal maturity suggests she could have had a baby. Bringing that relatively large-headed newborn through her relatively narrow pelvis would have been challenging, which means she may have had the help of a primitive "midwife."

If Lucy had a baby, she also likely had a partner. Other A. afarensis fossils, such as those of Kadanuumuu, show male australopithecines were only slightly larger than females, which, in primates, usually corresponds to more monogamous pairings.

Lucy and her kind would have spent a significant amount of their time avoiding becoming another animal's lunch. "These small creatures would have been nice hors d'oeuvres for a sabertooth or a large cat or hyena," Johanson said.

Perhaps because of that omnipresent danger, the group likely relied on each other.

"I think they had each other's backs and helped each other out," DeSilva said, "especially when they were in dangerous situations."

A healed bone fracture seen in Kadanuumuu provides evidence that these primates cared for one another. Around 3.6 million years ago, this male australopithecine broke his lower leg. By the time he died, though, the break was fully healed.

"On that landscape with that many predators, no doctors, no hospitals, no casts, no crutches, how in the world do you survive if not for social assistance?" DeSilva said. "It's really strong evidence that they didn't leave each other for dead."

Lucy's last day

Lucy probably started her last day much like any other, waking up from the treetop nest made of branches and leaves where she slept, along with her group, before setting off to find food.

It's not clear whether she would have been alone or in a group when she left to forage; if she did have a baby, she may have carried it.

But there's no doubt that she would have spent a significant part of her day looking for food. She most likely ate a few staples, such as grasses, roots and insects, chemical elements in her tooth enamel showed. She may have happened upon the eggs of birds or turtles and promptly gobbled them up as tasty, protein-rich treats. And if she was lucky enough to come across a carcass of a large mammal, such as an antelope, that hadn't been picked clean, she and her troop mates may have pulled the flesh from the bone, using large rocks.

"They can't afford to be picky eaters as these slow bipeds in a dangerous environment," DeSilva said. "They're eating everything they can get their hands on."

However, there's no evidence that Lucy’s species used fire to cook any of their food.

A view of Hadar, Ethiopia, near where Lucy was found. (Image credit: Image courtesy of the Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University.)

Death at the water's edge

In the past 50 years, we've created a picture of Lucy's last moments. It's not clear exactly why she was by the lake; maybe she was thirsty, or perhaps it was a great spot to look for food.

But there are two main theories for how she died.

"Perhaps she was down there at the water and — bam! — a crocodile comes out," Johanson said. "Crocodiles are incredibly fast, and it's a dangerous place if you're a little creature" like Lucy.

Johanson found one carnivore tooth mark on Lucy's pelvis, and it had not healed, meaning it occurred around the time of her death. Although the animal that made the mark has not been conclusively identified, "we know that australopithecines were preyed upon because there are a number of examples," Johanson said.

In 2016, Kappelman and his colleagues put forward an alternate ending for Lucy: a catastrophic fall from a tree.

Based on high-resolution CT scans and 3D reconstructions of Lucy's skeleton, Kappelman identified fractures in her right shoulder, ribs and knees that were unlike the typical fracturing that occurs in fossils crushed under the weight of dirt and rocks for millions of years.

"Something traumatic happened here during life," Kappelman said.

The kinds of fractures Lucy suffered are consistent with a fall from a considerable height, perhaps from a tall tree in which she was foraging for food.

I like to think all fossils are pretty special, but there's nothing like Lucy.

Jeremy DeSilva

"She hit on her feet and then her hands, which meant she was conscious when she hit the ground," Kappelman said. "I don't think she survived very long."

It's not clear whether she was alone when she died. But even if she was with others of her kind, they likely wouldn't have done much with her body.

There's no evidence that A. afarensis "bodies were treated any differently than any other animal," DeSilva said. "Maybe there was some curiosity around it, and then they carried on."

Primate researchers have documented other species' curiosity about inanimate bodies. For example, chimpanzees often care for the body for a few hours or days after death, sometimes guarding the body.

Lucy's group may have done the same for her until her body was naturally buried, which would have happened quite rapidly, perhaps by a flood or mudslide.

In the end, though, "we know very little about how any of these creatures died," Johanson said.

An illustration of australopithecines walking in wet ash at Laetoli in Tanzania. (Image credit: Illustration by Michael Hagelberg, courtesy Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University.)

Lucy lives on

Thanks to Johanson's 1974 discovery of Lucy — as well as other important findings, like the "First Family" and the footprints at Laetoli in Tanzania — we now know quite a lot about A. afarensis.

"It was a highly successful species that was comfortable in lots of different habitats," Johanson said; A. afarensis fossils have been found in Kenya in addition to Ethiopia and Tanzania. "From an evolutionary perspective, her species was highly adaptable," he said.

Lucy has had a broad impact on the field of anthropology.

"The discovery of Lucy really hit the start button for looking in older and older sediments in Africa," Kappelman said. As a result, we have found numerous ancient hominin species and now have 50 years' worth of fossil evidence that human evolution was messy and complex.

Lucy was the only human ancestor discovered at Hadar. But a couple dozen miles away at Woranso-Mille, a paleontological site in Ethiopia, Yohannes Haile-Selassie, director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University, and his colleagues have found evidence of a strange land inhabited by multiple humanlike species between 3.8 million and 3.3 million years ago. For instance, Lucy's kind coexisted alongside another ancient relative, A. anamensis.

Would they have been friends, enemies, competitors or something in between? Right now, anthropologists still have little idea what this landscape teeming with ancient hominins would have looked like.

But perhaps 50 years from now, we'll have a better picture of how Lucy's kind interacted with these other ancient hominins. Even then, Lucy will likely remain one of the most famous fossils of all time.

"I like to think all fossils are pretty special," DeSilva said, "but there's nothing like Lucy."

Editor's note: This article was originally published in November, 2024 as part of a special package written for the 50th anniversary of the discovery of a 3.2 million-year-old A. afarensis fossil (AL 288-1), nicknamed "Lucy."

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/we-now-know-much-more-about-how-our-ancestor-lucy-lived-and-died at Dec 29, 2025 at 2:17 AM EST.

PHYSICS & MATHEMATICS

QUIZZES | ALEXANDER MCNAMARA | DEC 25, 2025, 5:37 AM EST | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Guess the number quiz: Can you work out these scientific numbers and constants and top the leaderboard?

Do you know your mathematical equations from your scientific constants? If you know your numbers then try our daily quiz.

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Whether you're cooking up chemistry, getting physical with physics or bending your mind over mathematics, one thing that remains constant is, well, constants. Some numbers are so fundamental to the way we conduct science that we'd be lost without them, and their discovery has helped us better understand the world around us.

So how many of these key figures do you know? Try our new quiz and find out. We'll be dropping another number in the mix every day for you to guess, and if you prove yourself to be a numberphile, maybe you'll make it to the top of our leaderboard. All you need to do is register and your score will be saved, and be sure to leave a comment and share how you got on (but no spoilers please).

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—Periodic table of elements quiz: How many elements can you name in 10 minutes?

—How quickly can you name all 12 Apollo astronauts that walked on the moon?

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/guess-the-number-quiz-can-you-work-out-these-scientific-numbers-and-constants-and-top-the-leaderboard at Dec 29, 2025 at 2:17 AM EST.

HEALTH

FEATURES | KAMAL NAHAS | DEC 25, 2025, 5:37 AM EST | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Diagnostic dilemma: A man's bladder looked like a Christmas tree

In an unusual case, a man's bladder swelled dramatically at its base, taking the shape of a Christmas tree.

A man's urine-packed bladder took on the shape of a Christmas tree. (Image credit: © 2024, Ibrahim Haruna Gele)

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The patient: A 30-year-old man in Nigeria

The symptoms: The man went to the urology unit of a hospital after urine had been leaking out of small holes in his perineum — the skin between the penis and anus — for about two weeks. This condition is known as "watering can" perineum. The man had a history of various urinary problems, such as a poor stream, discharge from the urethra, urine dribbling, and a burning sensation while peeing.

What happened next: Because the man had a poor urinary stream — meaning his urine didn't flow as quickly or forcefully as usual — the doctors had to drain his full bladder before they could explore the cause of the leakage in his perineum.

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The doctors attempted to insert a catheter through the urethra and into the bladder, creating a tunnel for urine to flow into a bag. However, as they tried to push the tube, they hit a wall. Something was blocking the catheter's path.

The doctors instead made an incision in his abdomen and inserted a catheter into the bladder that way, bypassing the urethra altogether. Once urine began to flow, they tested it for signs of infection and found Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. These bugs are an uncommon cause of urinary tract infections and usually appear only when there is a physical abnormality blocking urine flow, which allows this species to remain in the bladder and thrive.

The doctors referred the patient to the radiology department to get scans of his bladder and search for signs of such physical abnormalities. To visualize the bladder in X-ray scans, the radiologists administered an X-ray-sensitive dye through the abdominal catheter. This revealed that the bladder had inflated at its base, leaving a pointy tip.

The diagnosis: This condition is known as a "Christmas tree" or "pinecone" bladder, owing to its appearance.

Doctors found a tight narrowing in the patient's urethra. (Image credit: © 2024, Ibrahim Haruna Gele)

The X-rays confirmed that urine had been blocked from leaving the organ. Yet a closer inspection of the bladder revealed no issues with the organ itself, such as an obstructing mass or bladder stones. This led the doctors to wonder if an obstruction was located elsewhere.

Further X-ray imaging revealed that the urethra had narrowed significantly about halfway up its length, cutting off urine flow. This condition is called a urethral stricture and has a multitude of causes.

Often, it arises following a pelvic injury or physical trauma, such as from falling onto a bicycle's crossbar. It can also stem from sexually transmitted bacterial infections or appear if a tumor presses against the tube. Sometimes, the condition has no identifiable cause. (The exact reason for this man's condition wasn't noted in the report of his case.)

The treatment: The doctors treated the man's staph infection with antibiotics and performed an operation to restore the urethra's channel. Surgery can offer some respite from the condition, but urethral strictures often reoccur, the doctors noted in the report.

What makes the case unique: A urethral stricture is an unusual cause of Christmas tree bladder. Normally, a bottleneck in the urethra slows urine flow, leading to some degree of distension in the bladder, but not so much that the organ would widen at the base into a tree-like shape.

The "Christmas tree" swelling is usually caused by a problem with the nerves that control bladder contractions, thus preventing it from emptying properly. Often, this occurs following nerve damage from a spinal cord injury, stroke or neurodegenerative disease, such as multiple sclerosis. Alternatively, it can arise if the neck of the bladder becomes constricted or choked, such as by an inflamed prostate in men.

Disclaimer

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/health/diagnostic-dilemma-a-mans-bladder-looked-like-a-christmas-tree at Dec 29, 2025 at 2:17 AM EST.

SPACE

FEATURES | JAMIE CARTER | DEC 25, 2025, 5:36 AM EST | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

The 9 best things to see in the night sky with binoculars from November 2025 to January to 2026

Discover the highlights of the Northern Hemisphere’s winter night sky with our guide to the top celestial sights to enjoy through binoculars between November 2025 and January 2026.

(Image credit: wenbin via Getty Images)

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Winter in the Northern Hemisphere is the best season for stargazing with binoculars. The nights are long, the air is cold and the stars seem brighter than in summer.

Naked-eye stargazing in winter is a joy, but lift a pair of binoculars to your eyes and the whole experience changes. The sky stops being a flat backdrop and suddenly has depth. It’s layered with stars, open clusters and nebulas that you never knew were there. Galactic immersion is yours.

That’s the magic of binocular astronomy. Sweeping the sky with both eyes open, holding a pair of binoculars up to the night sky, feels natural and relaxed, yet you’re seeing so much more than with the unaided eye. It’s also easy and affordable to do — all you need is a warm coat, a dark corner and a steady pair of hands.

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Choose a good pair of the best stargazing binoculars — something like 7x50, 8x42 or 10x50 — and you’ll unlock a second layer of the winter night sky with almost no effort. Here’s what to look at in a pair of binoculars from the Northern Hemisphere this season.

If you want to get even closer to the night sky, the best telescopes will give you that extra bit of power.

1. Sirius, the kaleidoscope star

Sirius displays a rainbow of colors as seen through binoculars. (Image credit: wenbin via Getty Images)

It's the brightest star in the night sky, but Sirius in the constellation Canis Major also appears to be one of the most colorful. Although it’s a blue-white star, Sirius shows a rainbow of colors as it twinkles.

Its high brightness and the fact that it is low in the sky during the Northern Hemisphere winter make Sirius shimmer in multiple colors as its starlight is refracted by Earth’s atmosphere. Put your binoculars on Sirius and you will see a kaleidoscope of colors.

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2. Jupiter at opposition

Jupiter looks at its best in binoculars when it is at opposition. (Image credit: Alan Dyer/Stocktrek Images via Getty Images)

The best time to look at an outer planet is when it is at opposition. At that moment, the Earth is between the planet and the sun, making the planet both closest to Earth and fully illuminated by the sun.

On Jan. 10, 2026, Jupiter will come to opposition, something that happens once every 13 months. For a few weeks either side of this date, put a pair of 8x42, 10x42 or 10x50 binoculars on Jupiter and you will see its four Galilean moons — Europa, Callisto, Ganymede and Io — as dots either side of the giant planet.

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3. First quarter moon

The first quarter moon is when our satellite looks its best through binoculars. (Image credit: ValentynVolkov Via Getty Images)

Ask someone when the best time to look at the moon is, and they will almost always say when it's a full moon — but that’s bad advice. Through binoculars, the moon looks better at almost any other time of month, with perhaps the most intriguing (and convenient) coming at first quarter moon, when dramatic shadows can be seen along the terminator — the line between lunar night and day.

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Use any pair of 10x binoculars and you'll get a spectacular close-up of shadows cast by the craters, valleys and mountains on the moon. As a bonus, a first-quarter moon is up from dusk until midnight.

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4. The Owl Cluster

NGC 457. (Image credit: Stocktrek Images via Getty Images)

A particularly bright open star cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia, the Owl Cluster (or NGC 457 , if you prefer) is over 9,000 light-years from the solar system and contains almost 100 stars.

Its name comes from its yellow and blue stars, which are said to resemble the eyes of an owl. If you see Cassiopeia as a ‘W’ shape, NGC 457 is just beneath the first ‘V’.

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5. A supermoon rising

A full moon looks spectacular in binoculars if you catch it as it rises. (Image credit: Brad McGinley Photography via Getty Images)

As we've already said, the full moon phase is not the best time to look at the moon through binoculars — with one very specific exception.

If you can catch the full moon as it rises in the east during dusk, there are a few better sights than the lunar surface cast in an orange light. It looks that way because the sunlight being reflected into your eyes is traveling through the thickest part of Earth's atmosphere, which scatters away short-wavelength blue light, while the longer wavelengths of red and orange light pass through easily.

See the full moon rise on Dec. 4 (Cold Supermoon), Jan. 3 (Wolf Supermoon) and Feb. 1 (Snow Moon), researching the exact time of moonrise for your location and looking east a few minutes after.

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6. Auriga’s star clusters

Auriga is home to the star clusters M36, M37 and M38. (Image credit: Christophe Lehenaff via Getty Images)

The constellation of Auriga dominates the autumn and winter sky, but tends to get overshadowed by the rising stars in the constellation Orion below. Auriga’s brightest star is Capella, the goat star — the brightest in a rough pentagon of five stars.

However, within the constellation, there are some deep sky delights in the form of three star clusters — M36, M37 and M38. Find M36, and all three will be in the field of view of a pair of most 10x50 binoculars.

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7. Winter Milky Way

Winter’s Milky Way from Elan Valley Dark Sky Park, Wales. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)

Stargazers and astrophotographers rave about capturing the Milky Way during the Northern Hemisphere summer months, but the dense star fields of our galaxy's spiral arms can easily be seen in winter. All you need to do is scan your binoculars between the constellations of Orion in the south and Cassiopeia high in the north, and you will see many thousands of bright stars.

Looking its best between December and February, it's not as bright as the summer Milky Way, but the crisp and cold nights can give it a gorgeous, glittering look.

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8. Caroline’s Rose

NGC 7789 is a dense open cluster of stars. (Image credit: Alan Dyer/StockTrek Via Getty Images)

In the constellation Cassiopeia there is an open cluster, NGC 7789, whose stars and the dark lanes between them are said to resemble a rose. A great target for binoculars, the name comes from its discoverer in 1783, Caroline Herschel — a noted comet-hunter and the younger sister of astronomer William Herschel, who discovered Uranus.

If you see Cassiopeia as a ‘W’ shape, NGC 7789 is close to the final point, marked by the star Caph.

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9. Earthshine on the moon

Earthshine occurs for a few nights each month. (Image credit: Alan Dyer/Stocktrek Images via Getty Images)

It is one of the easiest and most spectacular sights of all to see through a pair of binoculars, but Earthshine doesn't get the attention it deserves. When the moon is a slim crescent, put your binoculars on the night side of the moon, and you will see detail on the lunar surface. This is Earthshine, sunlight reflected from Earth's icecaps, oceans and clouds, gently illuminating the dark side of the moon.

You'll see it for two or three nights, either side of the new moon phase, initially during a waning crescent moon visible in the east just before dawn, and later during a waxing crescent moon in the west just after dusk. New moons occur on Dec. 19, 2025, and Jan. 18, 2026.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/the-9-best-things-to-see-in-the-night-sky-with-binoculars-from-november-to-january-2025-to-2026 at Dec 29, 2025 at 2:17 AM EST.

Table of Contents

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Diagnostic dilemma: A man's bladder looked like a Christmas tree

The 9 best things to see in the night sky with binoculars from November 2025 to January to 2026