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Gliese 832c, discovered by a team of Australian scientists, is among the top three most similar known planets to Earth.

Forget the drones, 4K TVs and virtual reality headsets. This year’s Consumer Electronics Show was dominated by devices and services that connect your world.

We normally think of planets as being synonymous with gas giant or rocky worlds orbiting a parent star. They should all be so lucky. “You cannot be lonely if you […]

Through a telescope, this swarm of star appears extremely oblate. But is it really? Image credit: via http://vilagbiztonsag.hu/keptar/displayimage.php?album=19&pid=19138. “If I take dust in my hand and ask you if that […]

There’s five times as much dark matter as normal matter in the Universe. But how much of that matters for black holes? Image credit: NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope collaboration. “A […]

And why do some of them appear to be right here in our own galaxy, which formed much later? Image credit: DSS, of SMSS J031300.36–670839.3, candidate for “oldest star.” “Let […]

The scariest of all possible fates results in the ultimate destruction of everything that ever was or will be. Image credit: Boren-Simon 2.8–8 ED POWERNEWT Astrograph Image Gallery. “Why do […]

The importance of breakfast is treated as axiomatic by much of society, but the myth that it’s the most important meal of the day didn’t even exist 100 years ago.

In general, we all understand that practice improves our ability to play the viola, hit a golf ball, prepare tasty meals, etc. But how does practice work on the brain such that we get better at something just by repeating it?

“If you love someone,” pop star Stingsang years ago, “set them free.” Sometimes the first rule of love is forgetting all the rules that constrain the object of one’s affection, […]

Piss off George Lucas and shoot your eye out with a real-life light saber! “General Kenobi. Years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you […]

There’s plenty of gas, dust, planets and rocky bodies out there. Could some combination of them explain dark matter? Image credit: Chris Blake and Sam Moorfield, via http://www.sdss3.org/surveys/boss.php. “When a […]

A plastic pumpkin full of candy could hold up to 11,000 calories worth of sweets. While banning candy is out of the question, parents should limit their kids’ intake.

Supermoons are both super and common, but they’re only a tiny slice of our nearest neighbor’s magnificent journey. Image credit: ESA / NASA and the International Space Station. “O, swear […]

Let me start by saying that I love this month’s Atlantic cover story, “The New Science of Old Age.”  I’m not raising it up just to knock it down. The piece, […]

While looking at Jean-Antoine Houdon’s portrait bust of Voltaire in the Louvre, sculptor Auguste Rodin remarked, “To tell the truth, there is no artistic work that requires as much penetrating insight as the bust and the portrait. … Such a work is the equivalent of a biography.” On a separate occasion, Rodin stated, “The resemblance that [the artist] should achieve is that of the soul. Only this matters.” A new, full-scale reinstallation at the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, focuses on Rodin putting those words into practice in his own portrait busts. Known for his large-scale, full-bodied works such as The Kiss, Rodin imbued an equal amount of passion into his symbolic, soulful portraits of friends, lovers, and the famous.

With a planetary nebula, over 80,000 stars and a distance of only 10,000 light-years, it’s one of the most rewarding globulars of all! Image credit: R. Columbari, via http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=31833. “I […]

Wolfgang Tillmans’ “playback room” will provide a superior listening experience while treating pop music with the same regard as other pieces of art. 

Second-guessing of Sony’s withdrawal of “The Interview”, and of CIA torture in the ‘War on Terror,” ignores a basic truth about human behavior: When we are afraid, reasoning and morality readily give way to whatever feels like it might keep us safe.

Want to put your new 3D printer to the test? Try a copy of the Homunculus Nebula. NASA explains: The dusty, bipolar cosmic cloud is around 1 light-year across but […]

If a scientific theory can never be “100% proven,” how can we know what’s true? “Never waste your time trying to explain who you are to people who are committed […]

Ayah Bdeir had a dream – take electronics out of the hands of experts and large companies and put them in the hands of ordinary people in order to make […]

How to turn the greatest NASA images in history into wallpaper, curtains, fabric and more! Image credit: Elinor Medezinski, Suprime-Cam/Subaru Telescope; ZwCl 0024–17. “I’m coming back in… and it’s the […]

Six years ago, in a mock presidential election held in my daughter’s pre-K class, Barack Obama was the clear winner. Of the 18 children, 16 voted for Obama. (“Superman” and […]

Open-plan workspaces with minimalistic designs have become the standard for companies looking to avoid distraction and increase productivity. Yet these kinds of offices can actually reduce productivity.

NASA released this image today of the nighttime view of one of the 66 house-sized dishes at Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), high up in the Atacama Desert of Northern […]

The last object in the entire Messier Catalogue is faint, elusive, and the most common type of galaxy in the Universe! Image credit: Adam Block / NOAO / AURA / […]

Scientists have yet to determine exactly how emotions happen, let alone how we differentiate between our experiences of them.  University of Connecticut professor Ross Buck, expert in emotion and nonverbal […]

While 2015 gives us all a fresh start, we can consider the Big Bang until today to be “One Universe Year.” What comes next? “And now we welcome the new […]

Where all the structure in the cosmos came from, and we aren’t forming new ones anymore. Image credit: Andreas Berlind, via http://astro.phy.vanderbilt.edu/~berlinaa/work_research.html. “To be loyal to myself is to allow […]