Sarah Zhang

How Forty Acres of Desert Appeared in the Middle of Maine

Maine has miles and miles of coastline, but its most spectacular sand dunes are nowhere near water. For that, you’d have to head inland, toward the vast, sandy expanse known as the “Desert of Maine.” There, thanks to hapless farmers and some unusual geology, you’ll find rolling dunes in the land of lobster and pine…

Bizarre Soviet-Era Theory About New State of Matter Is Actually Right

Here’s your dose of mind-bending physics for the day. In 1970, a young Soviet physicist named Vitaly Efimov proposed a trio of ultracold particles could arrange themselves in an “infinite nesting-doll configuration.” Scientists have now published compelling evidence that this state of matter, once dismissed by physicists, totally does exist. Like most of us, physicists…

Watch a Robo-Crocodile Sneak Around Hippos to Study Their Poop

Like most creatures, hippos do not fancy being followed around by humans as they poop. But a robot boat carefully disguised as a crocodile? Why not. The Mara River in Kenya, home to 4,000 hippos, is also home to a lot of hippo poop. Scientists have worried that the brown slosh is flowing down river,…

Your “Gluten Intolerance” May Actually Be From Something Else in Wheat

Oh gluten, the least trendy protein of our time. As gluten-free has transcended science and exploded into diet fad, scientists increasingly suspect that gluten intolerance—apart from actual celiac disease—doesn’t exist at all. The true culprit could be a group of carbohydrates, including one in wheat called fructan. A new story from NPR’s Eliza Barclay does…

These 7 Bizarre Bus Stops Are All In the Same Tiny Austrian Town

Krumbach, a tiny, 1000-person village in Austrian, has some of the most avant-garde bus stops in the world. In exchange for a weeklong holiday in the village, seven architects designed bus stops that are alternately whimsical, weird, and dazzling. Last year, the village’s culture council convinced Austrian architect Dietmar Steiner to curate the bus stops.…

Your Yelp Complaints Are Being Used to Track Food Poisoning in NYC

You wake up and there is definitely something wrong with your stomach. Could it be the tacos last night? Oh man, it was definitely the tacos at that dirty joint. So what do you do? You whine about your diarrhea on Yelp as a warning to would-be taco eaters. And now, the health department might…

Photoshop Contest: Why Is Edward Snowden Staring Into Our Souls?

NBC’s Brian Williams has just landed an exclusive interview with Edward Snowden in Russia. That’s great—the NSA, let’s talk about it. But there is another pressing question to consider first: Why are Williams and Snowden looking at us like that? Before we get down to serious business—the interview itself will air as a primetime special…

A Woman Replaced Her Soap With a Daily Mist of Bacteria—And It Worked

Since we dirty buggers have already made the case against antibacterial soap, it’s time to consider the case against all soap. And showers. Basically all hygiene as we know it in the 21st century. In the latest New York Times Magazine, Julia Scott gives up soap for a mist of bacteria usually found in dirt—and…

This Electric Helmet Looks Goofy But It Zaps Deadly Brain Cancer

Glioblastoma is one of the most aggressive and deadly forms of brain cancer. Nausea-inducing chemotherapy can prolong life by a few months, but there’s another gentler though funnier-looking treatment: a cap that literally zaps the tumor away. The FDA approved this cap, called NovoTTF in 2011, when clinical trials found that it as effective as…

This Is the Closest We’ve Ever Come to Recreating Shark Skin

Shark skin is famously sleek and dragless, the envy of swimsuit designers. Perhaps less famous is what shark skin’s oddly rough surface looks like up close: an eerie matrix of microscopic tooth-like scales. Now, scientists are 3D printing artificial shark skin in hopes of unlocking its swimming secrets. The 3D-printed shark skin above is the…

Why exactly does the melting of the West Antarctica ice sheet matter? (Hint: look at that image.) What’s the secret to seamless driving in Google’s automated car? Why are we racing slime molds? Catch up in this week’s Landscape Reads! The Race of the Slime Molds “The race set off late in the afternoon on…

Quantum Positioning Could Be a Radically New Sub Navigation System

We take GPS so much for granted on land that it’s easy to forget where GPS doesn’t work—like deep underwater, where only strange sea creatures and submarines roam. Enter the bizarre new world of quantum positioning, where supercooled atoms could be the future of navigation. The UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) is leading…

We Still Don’t Know How Static Electricity Works

At some point in physics class, your teacher probably rubbed a balloon against his hair and explained static electricity. But what your teacher didn’t tell you—the full story about static electricity—is that scientists are just now realizing it is a lot more complicated than thought. The classic explanation, if you can remember back to physics…

11 Satellite Views of Earth As You’ve Never Seen It Before

Overhead satellite views are nothing special in this age of Google maps—but then, there’s Daily Overview. From brick-making kilns to Nepal to Danish suburbs, the site’s one image a day is consistently beautiful, weird, and illuminating of a larger story of how the Earth came to look this way. Here are some of Daily Overview’s…

On This Day in 1899, The First Speeding Arrest Happened—At 12 mph

If you think Manhattan traffic is slow today, consider that Jacob German was arrested on this day in 1899 for driving at the blistering speed of 12 mph. The speed limit he blasted past? Eight mph between streets, and 4 mph around corners. He is unlucky enough to be remembered forever, as the New York…

The Mysterious Disease Traveling Across the Pacific in the Wind

For decades, doctors have been unable to answer the most basic question about Kawasaki disease: what causes it—a virus, a chemical, a fungus? Whatever it is, it provokes mysterious swelling and rashes in infants. Doctors now think they have finally figured out what causes Kawasaki—thanks to an analysis of the wind. Kawasaki disease is most…

How the Colorado River Finally Reached the Sea Again

This week, for the first time in decades, the Colorado River flowed to its natural end in the Gulf of California. But it was the opposite of a natural event. The artificially engineered “pulse flow” that pushed the waters all the way to the Gulf required an unprecedented collaboration between the U.S. and Mexico, wading…

Every Neuron in a Brain Recorded in 3D on a Millisecond Timescale

To learn how the whole brain works, it doesn’t do to just record from one neuron—you want to know what every single neuron is doing every millisecond. Now scientists have invented a technique that can actually capture the 3D activity of an entire brain milliseconds at the time—possibly the most complete picture of brain activity…

Medieval Kitchens Used a Specially Bred Dog to Turn Roasting Spits

Before the era of “set it and forget it” countertop rotisserie ovens, kitchen gadgets required a lot more manpower—and if not manpower, then dogpower. The turnspit, a breed of dog dating for medieval Britain, would run around and around on a wheel like a hamster in a cage, ensuring evenly roasted meat for hungry noblemen.…

You Can Now Make an Offer to Buy Dracula’s Castle

If you prefer your houses large, drafty, and associated with vampire lore, then now’s your chance to bid for Bran Castle. The castle isn’t technically up for sale, the owners insist, but they’re willing to entertain offers from the “right” people. Buyer beware though—this isn’t the only castle purporting to be Dracula’s. The confusion comes…