The death toll of the US opioid crisis has been seriously lowballed, suggests a new study published Wednesday in Public Health Reports. It found that many states have failed to identify fatal drug overdoses specifically caused by opioid use over the past two decades. Since 1999, there might have been as many as 70,000…

Since 2016, at least 12 people have died worldwide soon after receiving a intragastric balloon, a new noninvasive procedure meant to help people lose weight, according to an alert released Monday by the Food and Drug Administration. Seven of the patients were in the US. In response, the FDA has approved new warning…

The US likely experienced its third consecutive year of a sagging life expectancy in 2017, based on preliminary data published this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Increased deaths from suicide and drug overdose probably played a role in the decline.

Night owls may be more fun at parties, but a preference for staying out late may come with some serious drawbacks, suggests a new study published this week in Chronobiology International. Namely, it might increase your chances of dying early.

Living creatures do amazing things. They grow toward the sun, build cities, lay eggs, and some even bone. But living things must die, and when they do, they tend to get smelly and mushy pretty quickly. But the moments after death, before decomposition, can be amazing in their own right. Scientists have just learned a…

Peter Madsen, an eccentric inventor who gained notoriety for his DIY submarine and mini-rocket projects, has been charged with the murder of Kim Wall, a young journalist that was writing a story about him. After months of shifting stories, prosecutors believe that Madsen intentionally killed Wall and that the act was…

In a grisly tale, The New York Times reports Takahiro Shiraishi, 27, was arrested in Zama prefecture, Japan, 30 miles outside of Tokyo, after police found nine severed heads in coolers in his apartment. Shiraishi reportedly used Twitter to find women who’d expressed suicidal thoughts over the service, murdering and…

Do not lose sleep tonight, the world will not end as the result of some enormous supervolcano eruption in Yellowstone National Park any time soon. But there is a whole lot of other interesting stuff going on there—so maybe it’s worth losing sleep by getting excited about science. Nerd.

On Monday, reporters were allowed to hear Peter Madsen’s version of the events that led to the death of the journalist Kim Wall aboard crowdfunded submarine, the UC3 Nautilus. At a court hearing in Copenhagen, Madsen claimed that Wall was accidentally struck on the head by a heavy hatch and he maintains that he is…

It’s not often that you’ll hear someone thank climate change for something. But today, it seems to have offered some closure on a 75-year-old mystery. So, thanks climate change, at least for this.