After a week of rampant speculation, astronomers have officially announced the discovery of Proxima b, a potentially habitable world circling our nearest neighboring star. But even as engineers prepare for an interstellar voyage to scope out Proxima b for signs of life, some experts warn that M dwarf systems like…
This is certainly a much better idea than a message that self-destructs after you read it (we’re looking at you, Inspector Gadget).
Ayahuasca has been used in shaman and healing rituals for centuries, specifically in areas near the Amazon river basin, but it’s seeing a surge in popularity among “tourists” that travel to South America to seek its hallucinatory effects.
If you’re like me and an American who hasn’t gone to a SeaWorld since 2002, then you probably haven’t heard of Marineland, which is a controversial amusement park in Niagara Falls, Canada that has been the subject of accusations of unfair animal treatment.
There are a number of reasons why Donald Trump’s proposal to build a wall on the US-Mexican border is kind of dumb, primarily being that nobody wants to fund such a crazy expensive operation. However, scientists have presented another reason why the border wall plan would be terrible, and it’s not just for the people…
The whitefly is kind of cute looking as far as invasive pests go, but they’ve recently been expanding their reach and are presenting a new threat to landscapers, gardeners, and farmers in the United States.
In the murky waters of the Ganges and Indus rivers, a few thousand blind dolphins swim on their sides, snapping at prey with long, exaggerated beaks and using echolocation to navigate. Because of pollution and habitat destruction, the South Asian river dolphin is on its way to extinction—but a newly-discovered…
Earlier this year, record warm ocean waters triggered a massive coral die off in the Great Barrier Reef, prompting a flurry of scientific research into the underlying cause. Now, for the first time, biologists have captured the process of coral bleaching as it happens, showing us how corals kill themselves in gory…
It’s Friday, and there’s no better time to have a frank, no-holds-barred discussion about all the weird and wonderful sex that takes place every single day, across all species, on this glorious blue planet we call home. Dr. Carin Bondar, biologist and host of the popular web series Wild Sex, is here today to take your…
The National Parks Service is facing a new threat, and it’s not a wild horde of honey badgers. It’s living slime.
If you’re counting on technology to radically extend your lifespan, you’ll want to pay close attention to what’s happening with the Greenland shark. According to a new scientific paper, this mysterious deep-sea dweller can live up to 400 years, making it the longest-lived vertebrate on Earth.
Billionaire douchebag Peter Thiel has plenty of crazy ideas, but his commitment to radical life extension isn’t one of them.
The US Drug Enforcement Agency has announced that marijuana will remain a Schedule 1 drug, saying it has “no medical use or purpose.” The decision keeps weed on the same naughty list alongside drugs like LSD and heroin.
No Man’s Sky was arguably the most anticipated game of 2016 after it was announced at E3 2014. Our friends at Kotaku have already committed tons of their time to the procedurally-generated space exploration adventure, which promises a “truly open universe,” filled with seemingly infinite things to explore.
It’s a veritable certainty that North America’s first people arrived via the Bering Land Bridge, but less certainty exists about how and where they migrated from there. For years, scientists thought they had travelled along an ice-free corridor in western Canada, but new research suggests this was impossible.
Writer Ed Yong has been chronicling the science of microbial life for years at such outlets as The New York Times, the Atlantic (where he is now a staff writer), and his blog, Not Exactly Rocket Science (currently hosted by National Geographic). Now he has published his first book, I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes…
New research shows that male dogs have been suffering from a rapid decline in fertility over the past three years, and all signs are pointing to contaminated pet foods as the culprit. The University of Nottingham researchers say a similar effect may be causing decreases in human male fertility.
On August 3rd, researchers discovered a dead mink whale floating belly up off the coast of Cape Cod. The next day, the same carcass was spotted again; ravaged almost beyond recognition. Its tongue, internal organs, and most of its skeletal muscles had been ripped off, leaving “little more than the spinal column and…
Elephants are majestic, amazing creatures, but they could be in trouble, along with other species of large mammals. If they disappear, we’d be robbed of the chance to see these giant animals roaming the Earth in their awe-inspiring glory.
Sunflowers may look like the sun if you squint your eyes a bit, but they also do this weird thing where they turn to face the sun, hence the name. But how and why these plants move over the course of a day has stumped scientists for over a century.
