Jonathan the tortoise became the oldest tortoise in human record in 2022, being granted the accolade by the Guinness World Records (who recently named the world’s oldest cat) after turning 190. It’s been accepted that he hatched in 1,832 based on photographic records, but it wasn’t until November of this year that he was finally granted an official birthday.

Jonathan’s birthday was declared to be December 4, 1832, by the governor of the British overseas territory Nigel Phillips, Guardian reports. It was celebrated with a three-day party at his home on the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean and damn, that’s a party we wish we’d got an invite to.

Reptilian pals and local residents were invited to the soiree that was held at the governor’s house complete with a tortoise-friendly birthday cake. A fitting tribute to a creature that’s both the world’s oldest living animal, and the oldest tortoise on human record.

If we want to understand complex constructions, such as ourselves, assembly theory says we must account for the entire history of how such entities came to be.

Older video but I wonder if they went anywhere with this. This would be very useful.

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Researchers are working on matter that will morph into different shapes, depending on your needs.

Earth’s rotational axis drifts naturally but its direction shifted east in the 1990s.

Upgrade will sharpen our view of nature’s atomic processes at work, aiding the development of a number of transformative technologies.

What if there was another nuclear incident in the US? A disaster management scholar looks back at the history of nuclear events to assess the risk.

Richard Dawkins once claimed he was an African Ape (which I reviewed here). Whether or not you like Richard Dawkins, and there is a lot to like and not like about him, he is entirely accurate about this one thing — we are humans and we are apes.