The bacteria C. metallidurans is able to take trace amounts of gold and copper and turn it into teeny tiny gold nuggets a few nanometers in size.
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There’s nothing new, recent, or remarkable about it. It’s just a typical cosmic pebble in the galactic ocean. Last year, the interstellar interloper ʻOumuamua passed through the inner Solar System. Originally […]
When we place the known objects in the Solar System in order, four inner, rocky worlds and four, outer, giant worlds stand out. Traditionally, these were defined as planets. Will […]
Wild boars in the sewers of London. Augmented humans of the future. Jason’s high school friend, celebrated children’s author Jacob Sager Weinstein, on imaginary histories and possible futures.
In the aftermath of everything we’ve learned about what’s in the Universe, we can make much better estimates of how many alien civilizations are out there. In 1961, scientist Frank Drake […]
Ayn Rand champions self-sufficiency, attacks altruism, demonizes public servants, and vilifies government regulations because they hinder individual freedom.
Since 2016, the exoplanet Proxima b has been a top candidate in the search for alien life. But new findings show that a stellar flare might have scorched that hope entirely.
13.8 billion years ago, our Universe as-we-know-it came into existence. Here’s what it was like. Looking out at our Universe today, we not only see a huge variety of stars and […]
You’ll be surprised how many commonly known science “facts” are actually total misconceptions.
After decades of research and analysis of geoscience data, the seventh largest geological continent officially exists.
Friendly neighbors and wide oceans. That, in a phrase, is America’s security plan. North Korea? Simply not a threat, says foreign policy expert Michael Desch.
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How three factors come together to unfreeze the ice, and unlock the potential for extraterrestrial life. “Day after day, day after day,We stuck, nor breath nor motion;As idle as a […]
Really puts the whole “don’t give up until you’re dead” thing to shame.
Diamonds can be formed in one of four fascinating ways.
The IAU has just approved a dozen new names for features on Pluto’s moon Charon. They draw from an array of famous authors, characters, mythical objects and one U.S. filmmaker.
It turns out most of the ocean’s plastic is coming from a single corner of the world.
Who will live on the this brand-new floating nation in the South Pacific—and how?
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Congress refused the majority of Trump’s proposed cuts to NASA’s budget. But many uncertainties remain. On March 21st, 2018, both branches of Congress passed the United States’ Consolidated Appropriations Act, […]
It isn’t the rapture or some crazy prophesy, but science, that tells us when and how the end will come. “The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic […]
A longtime debate over Buddhism’s religiosity has drawn a line between metaphysics and action.
It would be disappointing and surprising if Earth were the only template for habitability in the Universe.
It’s incredibly simple and straightforward, and the science doesn’t lie. (And yes, global warming played a role!) “The hurricane flooded me out of a lot of memorabilia, but it can’t flood […]
Enter an ancient version of Earth, where Santa Claus lives in South Korea, Cuba is land-locked, and Antarctica and India share the same climate.
If dark energy were stronger or weaker, everything would be pretty much the same. And that’s a puzzle. After the Big Bang, the Universe was full of matter and radiation. It […]
80% of solar radiation is absorbed by the atmosphere. This team has found a way to tap into the rest.
Our best physical theories predict that a multiverse exists. But if we can’t test it, is it really scientific? The Universe is all there ever was, all there is, and […]
Environmental concerns have caused some to opt-out of reproduction, both to help the planet and to protect their would-be children.
China’s expanding middle class is changing the world. The results are a global recycling dilemma.
Intelligent aliens, if they exist in the galaxy or the Universe, might be detectable from a variety of signals: electromagnetic, from planet modification, or because they’re spacefaring. But we haven’t […]
If emissions don’t go down, there’s still an option for combatting global warming. We just have to effectively dim the Sun. Global climate change is one of the most pressing long-term […]