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We Just Found The Largest Luminous Glowing Shark Species in The World

Three species of shark that inhabit the twilit depths of the ocean just turned out to have been bioluminescent this whole time.

The kitefin shark, the blackbelly lanternshark, and the southern lanternshark have all been discovered to have softly glowing blue patterns on their skin, a first for sharks found in New Zealand waters.

Of those three, the kitefin shark, which grows up to 180 centimetres (5 feet 11 inches) long, is now the largest known bioluminescent shark in the world.

Rare earth unlocks copper, gold and silver secrets

A study by Monash scientists has found that a rare earth affects the fate of a key reaction with copper, gold, silver, and uranium mineralisation.

The work is part of the “Olympic Dam in a test tube” project, where researchers tried to reproduce the processes that resulted in the concentration of more than a trillion dollars worth of metals at Olympic Dam in South Australia in the laboratory.

The study, published in Nature Communications, found that Cerium, which belongs to the group of elements called ‘rare earths’ speeds up important reactions and plays other significant roles.