Science

Watch NASA Land the InSight Probe on Mars Live Right Here

Today, NASA will attempt to land its InSight probe on Mars at around 3:00 pm ET (12:00 pm PT), and you can watch it live right here. After traveling 301,223,981 miles (484,773,006 kilometers) in just 205 days, the Mars Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) probe is set to enter the…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky Nov 26

What’s the Smartest Plant?

Compared to even the dumbest human being, your average tulip is a moron. But you’d have to be dumber than a tulip to deny that something—maybe not intelligence in its dictionary definition, but some guiding, autonomic power—is at work among the members of the plant kingdom. And if we grant plants this quasi-intelligence, then we…

Tech News Daniel Kolitz Nov 26

Nearly 200 Dead Sea Turtles Have Washed Ashore Along Cape Cod in the Last Week

More than 200 sea turtles reportedly washed ashore in the past week on Cape Cod’s bayside beaches amid a cold spell that brought on unusually low temperatures in the area. Jenette Kerr, communications coordinator of Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, told Earther by email on Sunday that about 184 turtles came in dead during…

Climate Change Catie Keck Nov 25

ISS Footage of Soyuz Rocket Launch Puts Hollywood Directors to Shame

In a video that looks like something a special effects shop would produce, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst has captured one of the most remarkable views of a rocket launch we’ve ever seen. This extraordinary timelapse shows the launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket that took flight on November 16, 2018 from the Baikonur cosmodrome in…

Tech News George Dvorsky Nov 23

These Precision Parts 3D-Printed From Fake Moon Dust Bring Us One Step Closer to Living on Mars

Mars is lacking in the vast supply of natural resources we’ve come to rely on here on Earth, and astronauts attempting to colonize, or even just visit, the red planet can only bring a limited supply of materials with them. Learning to make do with what Mars has to offer is one of the biggest…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Nov 23

Chimps Are Manipulative Dicks, New Research Confirms

As humans, we like to think we’re the only species capable of using others to get what we want. New research shows that chimpanzees, in the right circumstances, are also capable of social manipulation, highlighting a previously unknown cognitive capacity in our ape relatives. Social animals are equipped with an assortment of cognitive tricks to…

Tech News George Dvorsky Nov 23

Meet Dawn Shaughnessy, the Real-Life Alchemist Who Expanded the Periodic Table

The periodic table is chemistry’s holy text. Not only does it list all of the tools at chemists’ disposal, but its mere shape—where these elements fall into specific rows and columns—has made profound predictions about new elements and their properties that later came true. But few chemists on Earth have a closer relationship with the…

Physics & Chemistry Ryan F. Mandelbaum Nov 23

FDA Official Gives Update on E. Coli Outbreak, But You Shouldn’t Eat Romaine Lettuce Just Yet

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a warning earlier this week not to eat romaine lettuce of any kind as the result of a new E. coli outbreak that has sicked more than two dozen people across 11 states. Scott Gottlieb, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, tweeted Thursday that…

Health Catie Keck Nov 22

NASA Finally Schedules Test of SpaceX Spacecraft Designed for Astronauts

The first flight test of an unpiloted SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft has been scheduled for January, NASA announced yesterday. The test marks an important milestone for the United States, which hasn’t been able to independently deliver astronauts to space since 2011 when the Space Shuttle program was retired. Mark your calendar, folks—the uncrewed test flight…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky Nov 22

Gaze Upon the Reconstructed Face of an Infamous 19th Century British Assassin

One of the most intriguing items on display at the Queen Mary Pathology Museum—the skull belonging to British assassin John Bellingham—has been used to create a digital reconstruction of the killer’s face. John Bellingham, a bankrupt and disgruntled businessman, shot British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval in the lobby of the Palace of Westminster on May…

Human History George Dvorsky Nov 22

How NASA Plans to Keep Its Newest Mars Lander From Crashing to Pieces

NASA’s newest Martian lander is slated to do groundbreaking geologic research on the Red Planet. But first, it has to touch down this coming Monday. And landing on Mars is no easy feat. Despite a string of recent NASA successes, the overall success rate for Martian landings is around 40 percent. The InSight lander will…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum Nov 21

CDC Convenes Task Force to Investigate Rare Illness Paralyzing Kids Across the Country

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is taking things up a notch to investigate a mysterious polio-like disease that’s paralyzing young children. Earlier this week, the agency announced it would form a task force to better treat and confirm the cause of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), seemingly in response to a substantial uptick in…

Health Ed Cara Nov 21

Second Case of Rat Hepatitis in a Human Reported in Hong Kong

A 70-year-old Hong Kong woman has contracted the rat-specific version of Hepatitis E, signifying only the second time the disease has been documented in humans. Health officials in China are now scrambling to understand the implications of this disturbing new development. The patient, a retiree from Hong Kong’s Wong Tai Sin district, was admitted to…

Health George Dvorsky Nov 21

Bouncing Boulders May Finally Explain How Mars’ Ugliest Moon Got Its Stripes

Mars boasts two of the ugliest moons in the Solar System, including Phobos—an oddly shaped, pockmarked moon featuring a distinctive set of stripes. Astronomers have debated the origin of these grooves for decades, but a new computer simulation suggests Phobos’ stripes were made by rolling and bouncing boulders dislodged by a cataclysmic asteroid strike. This…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky Nov 21

CDC: Do Not Eat Any Romaine Lettuce Until We Can Figure Out What the Hell Is Going On

The Centers for Disease Control has an ominous warning for the nation this week: Please, for the love of god, do not consume romaine lettuce of any kind. In a statement, the agency wrote that it has determined an outbreak of a strain of E. coli has resulted in infections in at least 32 people…

Health Tom McKay Nov 20

Scientists Stabbed Cactus Spines Into Meat to Study Evolution

One benefit of working at a university with an agricultural school is the availability of meat. That’s especially useful if you need something to stab cactus spines into. The scientists weren’t as interested in the meat as they were in figuring out the relationship between a cactus spine’s structure and how well its stabs and…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum Nov 20

Teen Vaping May Have Led to Less Teen Smoking, Study Finds

The FDA calls teen vaping an “epidemic,” but the influence of e-cigarettes on teens’ overall health might be more complicated than assumed, according to a new study out Thursday in the journal Tobacco Control. It suggests that while teens and young adults in the U.S. did start flocking to e-cigarettes these past few years, they…

Health Ed Cara Nov 20

Blockchain Is Especially at Risk for Quantum Attacks, Scientists Warn

Blockchain is meant to be secure—but a new paper from quantum computing scientists warns that quickly advancing quantum technology poses a vulnerability for the much-hyped blockchain. Blockchain is the technology behind bitcoin. It’s found uses as a secure digital ledger and authentication system maintained by its users, rather than by one central authority. But quantum…

Gadgets Ryan F. Mandelbaum Nov 20

Colorful Maps Show How We’ve Transformed Earth’s Surface Over the Past 25 Years

The world’s changed a lot over the last quarter century. In fact, 22 percent of our planet’s livable surface has changed dramatically between the years 1992 and 2015, according to a new study published Monday. The study, published in the International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, used satellite data from the European Space…

Earth Science Yessenia Funes Nov 20

Brain-Destroying Prions Also Spread Through Victims’ Eyes

One of the strangest things that can sicken us—a rogue misfolded protein that destroys the brain, known as a prion—is even scarier than we knew. Researchers were able to find the prions responsible for sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), the most common prion disease in people, seeded everywhere in the eyes of 11 patients affected by…

Health Ed Cara Nov 20

Watch NASA Land the InSight Probe on Mars Live Right Here

What’s the Smartest Plant?

Nearly 200 Dead Sea Turtles Have Washed Ashore Along Cape Cod in the Last Week

ISS Footage of Soyuz Rocket Launch Puts Hollywood Directors to Shame

These Precision Parts 3D-Printed From Fake Moon Dust Bring Us One Step Closer to Living on Mars

Chimps Are Manipulative Dicks, New Research Confirms

Meet Dawn Shaughnessy, the Real-Life Alchemist Who Expanded the Periodic Table

FDA Official Gives Update on E. Coli Outbreak, But You Shouldn’t Eat Romaine Lettuce Just Yet

NASA Finally Schedules Test of SpaceX Spacecraft Designed for Astronauts

Gaze Upon the Reconstructed Face of an Infamous 19th Century British Assassin

How NASA Plans to Keep Its Newest Mars Lander From Crashing to Pieces

CDC Convenes Task Force to Investigate Rare Illness Paralyzing Kids Across the Country

Second Case of Rat Hepatitis in a Human Reported in Hong Kong

Bouncing Boulders May Finally Explain How Mars’ Ugliest Moon Got Its Stripes

CDC: Do Not Eat Any Romaine Lettuce Until We Can Figure Out What the Hell Is Going On

Scientists Stabbed Cactus Spines Into Meat to Study Evolution

Teen Vaping May Have Led to Less Teen Smoking, Study Finds

Blockchain Is Especially at Risk for Quantum Attacks, Scientists Warn

Colorful Maps Show How We’ve Transformed Earth’s Surface Over the Past 25 Years

Brain-Destroying Prions Also Spread Through Victims’ Eyes

Amazon Is Sticking With ‘Rings of Power’ to the End

Trump Is Reportedly Going Full Steam Ahead with the Golden Dome

‘Kamen Rider’ Is Ready to Take on the World

Twitter Just Can’t Stop Leaking Movies

The ‘Mass Effect’ Show is Getting Rewritten to Get Greenlit

See the Early Stages of How ‘Project Hail Mary’ Brought Rocky to Life

‘Cognitive Surrender’ Is a New and Useful Term for How AI Melts Brains

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

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