Science

This Rover Isn’t on Mars

This looks like it could the latest rover to land on the surface of Mars. But in fact it’s a test of the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission happening right here on Earth. Theaerial photograph shows a half-scale model of the ExoMars lander and a prototype rover being tested in the ESA’s Mars Yard in…

Space & Spaceflight Jamie Condliffe

This Is Why You Scratch an Itch

Scientists have long struggled to explain what actually causes the sensation of itching – now we know what to blame. Having an itch can be incredibly annoying but it actually serves an important function, protecting us from damage to our skin. However, scientists have long struggled to explain what actually causes the sensation – in…

Health Harriet Dempsey-Jones

Halloween Is Way Creepier In Zero Gravity

Most ghost costumes are half-assed at best: no matter how good your mask and bedsheet might be, ghosts are meant to float. So if you’re really committed to a good costume, you should take it into zero gravity—up on the International Space Station, for example. That’s exactly what Commander Scott Kelly did to try and…

Space & Spaceflight Chris Mills

The Closest Exoplanet to Earth Was Probably a Ghost

When the exoplanet Alpha Centauri Bb was announced in Nature in 2012, it was hailed a watershed moment in the search for Earth-like worlds beyond our solar system. But as eerie as it sounds, it now appears that Alpha Centauri Bb never existed. According to new research, the closest exoplanet to our own star was…

Space & Spaceflight Maddie Stone

Start Your Halloween Right by Watching Elephants Pulverize Giant Pumpkins

Everybody has their own Halloween tradition, whether it’s taking chocolate from strangers or doing shots of vile, candy-corn flavored vodka. But the elephant family at the Oregon Zoo’s annual “Squishing of the Squash” its hands-down my favorite. There’s something innately satisfying about four ton animals destroying half ton vegetables. And I think it’s fair to…

Biology Maddie Stone

That “Spooky” Halloween Asteroid is a Dead Comet That Looks Like a Skull

If you weren’t already having nightmares about the “Halloween asteroid” taking a detour and crashing into New York City, well, this space rock just got a little spookier. First off, Spooky isn’t an asteroid; according to NASA, it’s a dead comet. Worse! It looks like a haunted human skull. That’s according to the latest optical…

Space & Spaceflight Maddie Stone

Get Ready For “Spooky,” the Halloween Asteroid!

On All Hallow’s Eve, an asteroid dubbed “Spooky” will make its closest approach to our planet. Hurtling along at an impressive 78,830 miles per hour, the 1,300-foot-wide object poses no threat to Earth…or does it? This Gizmodo video explains Spooky’s story. As you’re looking for witches on broomsticks in the night sky, here’s how to…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

This Gorgeous Poster Contains Every Single Bird You’ll See in North America

Whether you’re a bird lover or a data fiend, this poster will please you immensely. (See a zoomable version here.) The latest creation from the data maniacs at Pop Chart Lab, “Birds of North America” contains every species of bird you can see in this part of the American continent, beautifully drawn. I even identified…

Biology Annalee Newitz

Report: Many Over-the-Counter Decongestants Are Basically Useless

Remember a few years back, when relieving your stuffy nose was a simple matter of going to your local pharmacy and buying Sudafed? And then one day Sudafed just….stopped working? You weren’t imagining it. According to new research, phenylephrine—the active ingredient drug makers swapped into over-the-counter decongestants when they took out pseudoephedrine—is basically useless. In…

Health Maddie Stone

Newly Declassified Photos Show The Crewed USAF Spy Spacecraft That Almost Was

On October 22, 2015 the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) declassified and released 282 rarely or never before seen images and 825 confidential records (a total of 20,681 pages) about the so called Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL), the project which would have sent American astronauts to orbit over the Soviet Union in order to take better…

Space & Spaceflight Attila Nagy

Sounds Gross, But Intestinal Worms Can Actually Be Good For You

Intestinal worms have an incredibly bad reputation. The thought of them sneaking around inside our bodies and eating us from the inside is pretty unpleasant. But for decades, results coming out of lab after lab have shown that some kinds of helminths can be extremely beneficial to their host, and aren’t parasites at all. Just…

Health William Parker—The Conversation

Canada’s Manicouagan Crater Looks Other-Wordly in This Satellite Image

This isn’t the surface of another planet. In fact, it’s a flase-color image of Canada’s Manicouagan Crater, as captured by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1A satellite. Created over 214 million years ago, the crater—which you can see clearly on the right of the image—is one of the oldest and largest impact craters on the planet,…

Space & Spaceflight Jamie Condliffe

This Graphene Detector Monitors All Forms of Light—and Is Lightning Fast, Too

It may look like something you’d use for target practice, but this is a new kind of sensor that can detect the presence of all kinds of light—and reacts to it in super-quick time, too. In fact, the graphene sensor is, according to the researchers that built it, the first time that a single detector…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe

Watching This Vampire Bat on a Treadmill Never Gets Old

We think of bats as swooping through the air to hunt their prey, but the vampire bat is known to creep along the ground to stalk its prey. Put it on a tiny treadmill, and the crafty critter can also break into a full gallop, using its wings to propel itself along the ground. The…

Biology Jennifer Ouellette

Explore Pluto in Three Dimensions

Get ready to tease your eyes while exploring the mountains, plains, and craters of Pluto in new three-dimensional images of the strange little world. Stereopairs are classically two images taken of the same thing from the same orientation and approximately the same resolution, but from slightly different angles. The result means that you can use…

Space & Spaceflight Mika McKinnon

This is Why Cat Sex Seems Kinda Brutal

Cat sex videos are all the same. The tom mounts the female, she arches her back and moves her tail aside–a response called lordosis, by the way–and the two of them get down to the act. But soon afterwards, the yowling starts, followed by the spitting and swiping. Why so angry, kittycat? I’m afraid, gentle…

Biology Diane Kelly

Astronomers Have Discovered a Previously Unknown Feature of the Milky Way

Using the VISTA telescope, astronomers in Chile have discovered a previously undetected band of young stars hidden away behind thick clouds of dust in the central bulge of the Milky Way. Sometimes observation leads to some unforeseen discoveries, as in the case of this study. Our Solar System is parked inside the Milky Way, which…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

This Gorgeous GPS Satellite Is Ready for Tomorrow’s Launch

This golden slice of visual perfection is a Global Positioning System IIF-series satellite. It underwent final encapsulation inside its four-meter diameter protective payload fairing on October 21st at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The U.S. Air Force and its mission partners are scheduled to launch this satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V…

Space & Spaceflight Attila Nagy

This Electric Eel Kills Its Prey With a Sophisticated Coiling Maneuver

Last week we saw that electric eels use their electric pulses the way dolphins use sound—as a way of “seeing” their environment. Now we’ve learned that they have a special maneuver which helps them kill tougher prey. The video above shows an electric eel doing its best to kill an already-dead fish, stuffed with monitoring…

Biology Esther Inglis-Arkell

There Actually Is Sound in Outer Space

You’ve heard it before: In space, no one can hear you scream. That’s because sound doesn’t move through a vacuum, and everyone knows that space is a vacuum. The thing is, that’s not completely true. Space isn’t uniform nothingness. It’s full of stuff. In between the stars, there are clouds of gas and dust. These…

Space & Spaceflight Kiona Smith-Strickland

This Rover Isn’t on Mars

This Is Why You Scratch an Itch

Halloween Is Way Creepier In Zero Gravity

The Closest Exoplanet to Earth Was Probably a Ghost

Start Your Halloween Right by Watching Elephants Pulverize Giant Pumpkins

That “Spooky” Halloween Asteroid is a Dead Comet That Looks Like a Skull

Get Ready For “Spooky,” the Halloween Asteroid!

This Gorgeous Poster Contains Every Single Bird You’ll See in North America

Report: Many Over-the-Counter Decongestants Are Basically Useless

Newly Declassified Photos Show The Crewed USAF Spy Spacecraft That Almost Was

Sounds Gross, But Intestinal Worms Can Actually Be Good For You

Canada’s Manicouagan Crater Looks Other-Wordly in This Satellite Image

This Graphene Detector Monitors All Forms of Light—and Is Lightning Fast, Too

Watching This Vampire Bat on a Treadmill Never Gets Old

Explore Pluto in Three Dimensions

This is Why Cat Sex Seems Kinda Brutal

Astronomers Have Discovered a Previously Unknown Feature of the Milky Way

This Gorgeous GPS Satellite Is Ready for Tomorrow’s Launch

This Electric Eel Kills Its Prey With a Sophisticated Coiling Maneuver

There Actually Is Sound in Outer Space

Roku’s 2025 Streaming Stick HD Is 40% Off to Compete With Amazon Fire TV Stick During Spring Sale

Epstein Victims Sue Google, Claim AI Mode Exposed Personal Information

‘Wicked Spot’ Is a Fun, Sapphic Rom-Com That Yeets a Witch Into the Magical World of Influencer Culture

Anthropic and OpenAI Just Gave Us a Glimpse Into the Future of Model Pricing

Amazon Slashes 63% Off Acer Aspire Desktop for a Limited-Time Spring Sale, With Keyboard and Mouse Included

Smart Glasses Now Have One of the Vision Pro’s Best Features

Marvel Just Put ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2 in a Very Weird Place in the MCU Timeline

Trump Drops $1B to Kill 2 Wind Farms, Then Watches a Bigger One Go Online

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets

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