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Wake up and smell the independence. Thomas Jefferson urged 18th century Americans to think of themselves not as colonial Englishmen, but as a new culture. To that end, he used architecture to serve as a visual reminder of America’s proud new direction.

How many galaxies are there in the observable Universe? For the first time, we don’t just have a ‘lower limit’ — we have an answer. “Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that […]

Newton thought it was instantaneous, but the story is much richer than that! “The fact that gravitational damping is measured at all is a strong indication that the propagation speed of […]

A new study reports that political language is becoming more partisan and polarized. How is this new and what effects might this have on our republic? 

You’ll get another good chance in two years, and then not again until the 2030s! “This is the plan. Get your ass to Mars, and go to the Hilton Hotel and […]

Our picture of life is going through a major shift. Ed Yong’s book I Contain Multitudes reveals that a genome generally doesn’t contain all the genes an organism needs. Symbiosis isn’t rare, it’s the rule. And we’re just the icing on life’s vast microbial cake. 

Three phases in brain development led to the creation of religion. What we do with that is up to us.

And are likely due to subsurface water, geysers and an incredible process. “Have you entered the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depths?” –Job […]

With $100 million invested towards it and an incredible concept behind it, could this be the start of interstellar travel? “Fundamental physics is like an art more or less. It’s […]

A stunning new image of ALMA’s protoplanetary disk sheds light on planetary formation. “TW Hydrae is quite special. It is the nearest known protoplanetary disc to Earth and it may […]

Traffic navigation apps like Waze are loved by some and hated by others. But why?

Closing in on 35 years since HIV was first discovered, medical science is now starting to see the possibility of a day when HIV will be curable. In fact, new research has developed several possible strategies which could eliminate the virus from the body. But challenges remain.   

Apple’s removal of the iPhones 3.4 mm headphone jack is causing an uproar as part of technology’s inexorable march forward.

A ninth planet does not only exist, but it causes comets to rain upon Earth, creating extinction events, says astrophysicist. 

We know the benefits about positivity. What about grumpiness? 

Some were kicked out of their Solar Systems at the beginning, while others never had a parent star at all. “The truth is you can be orphaned again and again and […]

Sleeplessness and fatigue getting you down? Turns out the trick is respecting that big star in the sky.

Advances in our understanding of cognitive processes are proving tremendous. When it comes to understanding consciousness, you might say the ghost in the machine is a chemical engineer.

Could Michael Bloomberg actually win? Or should he spend his billions on fixing our broken electoral system instead?

Edward Snowden and his allies are lobbying President Obama to pardon him.

The science behind tickling and why such an unpleasant experience makes us laugh.

The most impactful technology inventions in history are ranked.

In A Field Guide to Lies, neuroscientist Daniel Levitin explains how to wade through an endless sea of data and statistics to hone our critical thinking skills.

It’s the most mysterious “stuff” our Universe has. So why are we so sure it’s real? “The Universe is made mostly of dark matter and dark energy, and we don’t know […]

Douglas Rushkoff’s new book Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus is a refreshingly practical progressive how-to amid the rhetorical excesses of this election year. 

When Copernicus put the sun at the center of the solar system in 1543 instead of the Earth, it dealt a major blow to the self-esteem of people who needed to be at the center of it all.

While cupping hit the mainstream thanks to Olympic athletes, the practice has a religious history in Islam. 

New analyses of data gathered by the 2001 Mars Odyssey rover reveals that water molecules are bound up in the very soil of Mars.  

Researchers at the University College of London have proposed the development of a centralized digital currency. It’s unlike Bitcoin, but has all its benefits.

The Global Challenges Foundation released a Global Catastrophic Risk Report last week. The results aren’t pretty. Or surprising.