The quadratic formula isn’t just something that teachers use to torture algebra students. The Babylonians once used it to calculate taxes.

It’s not a glitch in the matrix. It’s not the Mandela effect. There’s actually a scientific reason you remember things wrong.

The Poisson distribution has everyday applications in science, finance, and insurance. To compare the results of some biomedical studies, more people ought to be familiar with it.

The ten greatest ideas in science form the bedrock of modern biology, chemistry, and physics. Everyone should be familiar with them.

America’s war in Southeast Asia is fading fast from memory. These maps offer a horrific reminder.

Get stronger in only three seconds per day? New research shows that it is possible.

In general, 5G is not a threat to human health or activities, but there are some legitimate questions about interference with airplane instruments.

There are good historical reasons why Germans are suspicious of surveillance.

Yes, the Universe is expanding, but you might wonder, “How fast is it expanding?”

Please stop calling our Sun an “average star.” It is philosophically dubious and astronomically incorrect.

Historically, periods of mass flourishing are underpinned by technological revolutions. Currently, we are undergoing a technological revolution unlike anything the world has ever seen.

Although saying the wrong thing could often get you killed in ancient civilizations, history shows that the ideal of free speech has deep roots.

65 million years ago, an asteroid strike caused the 5th great mass extinction. Could we save Earth, today, from a similar event?

The Universe has asymmetries, but that’s a good thing. Imperfections are essential for the existence of stars and even life itself.

Implicit bias may be outside your conscious control, but that doesn’t mean change is.

The U.S. has the world’s largest debt in absolute terms, but Japan’s is the largest when measured in terms of its debt-to-GDP ratio.

The ANITA experiment found cosmic rays shooting out of Antarctica. One interpretation claims “parallel Universes,” but is that right?

When Saint Ambrose of Milan was venerated, his life became public property, its meaning expanding with the unique interpretations of each new generation.

Whenever you’re surprised, there’s a good chance that your brain is busy tweaking your memories.

With this unique opportunity to create a totally new world, why does the metaverse already feature such old-world concepts?

Why power generated through nuclear fusion will be the future, but not the present, solution to humanity’s energy needs.

Should we take people’s drunken behavior as evidence of their true character?

Many first-hand accounts from the golden age of piracy were grossly embellished, meaning it’s extremely difficult to separate Blackbeard the legend from Edward Thatch the person.

As viewed by the MeerKAT telescope, this radio view of the Milky Way blows away every other way we’ve ever seen our home galaxy.

Space planes could radically lower the cost of spaceflight.

There really might be extraterrestrials out there, attempting to make contact. Here’s how science, not fiction, is attempting to find them.

Einstein’s theories of relativity faced fierce opposition. One critic claimed he was attempting to subvert the scientific method.

One hundred years ago, a Ukrainian flag flew over Vladivostok and other parts of the “Russian” Far East.

For a long time, important events could only be visualized retroactively through paintings. Photography allowed us to capture history as — or sometimes even before — it happened. 

A new analysis of an ancient hominin fossil sheds light on the “Out of Africa” dispersal events that occurred more than one million years ago.