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The horrors of the nuclear age, in terms of exploding reactors and nuclear bombs, are well known. Behind the well-publicized threat of mass death lies a secret history of nuclear projects being used to destroy individuals. In the late 1940s, United States citizens were injected with plutonium without their knowledge. More »
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Brachiosaurus is estimated to have weighed close to thirty metric tons. Put two of these behemoths together, and you're dealing with upwards of 125,000 pounds of dinosaur. More »
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One of the big selling points of the Speedo Fastskin FSII was that it was developed using biomimetics, cribbing good design from nature. So how well does it compare to the actual sharks on which it was modelled? It turns out... not so great. More »
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Remember when the Church got all up in Galileo's grill for challenging the geocentric interpretation of the Universe? Seeing this almost makes you wonder if the Universe is still a little sore about that. More »
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Really, one of the key issues with sushi is that it doesn't glow under black light. To solve that problem, the Center for Genomic Gastronomy is using genetically modified fishies from the pet store to create tasty treats that will be perfect for your next rave. More »
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Evidence suggests that driving high may be less dangerous than driving drunk, but driving stoned is still driving impaired — and assuming otherwise could get you killed. More »
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Fukushima may still be reeling from last year's nuclear disaster, but a global interest in nuclear power looks to be on the up and up — even here in the U.S. More »
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The effectiveness of zinc as a treatment for colds is hotly debated, but it appears the element might have a major role in saving lives — with a completely different disease. A new report published in BMC Medicine suggests that zinc supplements might significantly improve the survival rate of young children with pneumonia. Researchers at Makerere University in Uganda undertook a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, of 350 children under the age of five with respiratory tract infections. All the subjects were treated with standard antibiotics, but half were given zinc supplements in addition, and half a placebo. More »
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The science of dendrochronology observes changes in the pattern of tree rings in an attempt to create a time line and infer climate changes. Using tree ring data, it is possible to link the past 11,000 years in parts of Germany & Northern Ireland, but only the past few centuries in other parts of the world. More »
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Explanations for why zebras are stripey run a wide gamut: some say camouflage, or that it makes it hard to target individual members of the herd, or even that it's a cooling method. Well, add another one to the list, which at least has some experimentation behind it. More »
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In what can only be described as the most shocking revelation since I learned that tumors can grow teeth, it turns out your pancreas has taste receptors. New research published in the PNAS indicates that there are sweet taste receptors in that organ — and their reaction to fructose may be a cause of diabetes. More »
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Are you more creative when you're drunk? It's one of those soundbites that you're liable to hear a friend spout off somewhere between their fourth and fifth beer — a little factoid that might actually sound somewhat feasible if only there were a scientific study lying around to back it up. More »
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The invention of the toilet accomplished many good things, but it did rob us of the chance at immortality - through our poop. Ancient humans have revealed some of their greatest secrets through paleofeces, the study of the waste they left behind. More »
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Imagine that you're coral at the bottom of the sea — a thrilling fantasy, we know. You're minding your own coral business when suddenly some obnoxious scuba diver ungraciously dumps sediment on you. How do you free yourself from this sand trap? More »
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This is Ayumu, he's an 11-year-old chimpanzee who lives and trains at Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute. In his time there, Ayumu has come to excel at an incredibly difficult — albeit very straightforward — memorization game. If you challenge him to this game, you will lose. More »
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Scientists have found a way to turn iron nuclei transparent to X-rays, using lasers. And besides the coolness of making things disappear using lasers, this could have huge applications in optical computing. More »
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Ladybugs are the one kind of bug you don't mind crawling on you. They're cute. They're pretty. And they swarm. They swarm by the tens of millions. I had a personal encounter with a smaller swarm when hiking. Find out about my brush with nature's most adorable fury. More »
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We've been hearing a lot about how the future of electronics will involve stretchy circuit boards, or circuits you can glue to your skin. In this video, you can see one crucial ingredient in bendy electronics — stretchable, electrically-conductive gold that can bend with the rubber it's printed on. University of Cambridge engineering researcher Ingrid Graz has been working on creating this type of gold, and here she shows us what this gold looks like on a microscopic level. It's both beautiful and fascinating. More »
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This Sensory Substitution Device uses the camera to gather visual data and then uses a rather nifty computer algorithm to translates this data into sound. With a little practice, blind users can identify complex objects, and even read words. More »
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This one pretty much does what it says on the tin. The face-morphing, augmented-reality app you see here is the brainchild of New York artist Karolina Sobecka, who calls the interface All the Universe is Full of the Lives of Perfect Creatures. More »
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A heart won't beat once it's been ripped out of the chest Indiana Jones style. But disembodied heart cells, when nurtured in a petri dish, will beat on their own. More »
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In the summer of 1997, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration picked up a sound from deep beneath the Pacific. The sound seemed to come from an animal far larger than any we've ever seen. This was the Bloop. More »
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Leggings, yoga pants, call them what you will — the point is they're everywhere. And while there's something to be said about the marvels of body-shaping attire, the fact remains that ass-hugging tight-pants — which typically come in some form of white, grey, or black — are becoming a bit commonplace... boring, even. More »
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While a huge amount of research has examined how plants and animals looked in the prehistoric past, we know extremely little about what these creatures would have sounded like (Dr. Alan Grant's 3D-printed raptor voice box in Jurassic Park 3 notwithstanding). But now, we finally have some idea of one noise that would have pierced the primeval woodlands 165 million years ago. More »
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Tons of cat owners have Toxoplasma gondii, the common feline parasite. We've known for quite some time that T. gondii makes rats lose their fear of cats, making them more likely to be eaten. We've also known that the parasite causes humans to become more reckless, and in some cases hornier. More »
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Gonorrhea is the second-most commonly reported sexually transmitted disease in the United States. But no biggie, right? It's not like it's HIV or herpes — you know, one of those STDs that sticks with you for life. Just pop some antibiotics and you're good to go, right? More »
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At just five inches long, tarsiers are among the world's smallest primates. And yet they communicate much like humans, using a wide range of calls to communicate. That's why it's so weird that some tarsiers apparently stay completely silent. More »
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Metaphors and other figurative language are deeply woven into the fabric of human communication, as this very sentence actually demonstrates. But how do our brains translate these metaphors into something they can understand? More »
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Damn. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what stargazers call a globular cluster — a spherical grouping of gravitationally bound celestial bodies, swirling about deep in the inky blackness of space. [Hi-res available here] More »
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Aphrodisiacs have a rich and often-told history — but what about their opposite? Throughout history, people have tried to find ways to suppress sexual desire. People have used methods ranging from saltpeter to cornflakes to modern-day chemical castration, with mixed success. More »
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In the most comprehensive analysis of its kind to date, scientists have used NASA satellites to gauge just how much of the world's ice has been lost to the oceans. Their results? Data collected over eight years of the past decade indicates that melting ice raised sea levels worldwide by an average of 1.48 millimeters. More »
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If you're a shark, what could you possibly have to fear? You're the ultimate predator, the top of the marine food chain. You can swim around without a care in the world... unless another, even bigger shark is feeling hungry. More »
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This beautiful image [hi-res available here] was recently recognized by National Geographic as one of the best photographs of 2011. Two of the magazine's photo editors appreciated it for its cryptic quality. Is the subject of this photograph a sprouting fungus? A microscopic photo of a leaf? A snowy landscape? More »
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We've looked at the Carina Nebula before, but we've never looked into it. While the nebula is plenty beautiful in regular optical wavelengths, this infrared image allows us to peer behind the thick gas clouds to see the gorgeousness inside. More »
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Bacillus anthraces — more commonly known as anthrax — is not to be trifled with. Once the bacterium enters the blood stream, it releases a lethal cocktail of toxins that spreads rapidly throughout the body, leading to severe tissue damage, bleeding, and respiratory collapse. The fact that anthrax spores can infect a host via inhalation have made it a popular biological weapon in recent years. More »
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Yesterday, President Obama hosted over 100 students at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the second annual White House Science Fair. Young scientists of all ages showed off projects in subjects ranging from robots, to rocketry, to energy conservation. Fourteen-year-old Joey Hudy even brought an air cannon capable of launching marshmallows upwards of 175 feet. More »
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Science is always good for an awesomely counter-intuitive finding, and this one has to be the mother of them all. Despite the fact that life itself originally came from the sea, the same can't be said of the ocean's current occupants. More »
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Neuroscientists have made huge breakthroughs in our understanding of the inner workings of the mind, particularly how various regions of the brain are linked to specific cognitive processes. This is powerful knowledge... and it could be headed to the battlefield. More »
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What would Tron be without black light? Or television crime scene investigations, for that matter? Just screw in a special lightbulb, and suddenly everything glows in an awesome way. But how does this actually work? More »
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The human genome carries an average of 1% to 4% Neanderthal DNA, which means our ancient human ancestors must have interbred with our extinct evolutionary cousins. That raises an obvious next question: why did humans have sex with Neanderthals? More »
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