It will be the most extreme test of Einstein’s General Relativity ever. And we already have the data. With every year that goes by, the total amount of knowledge that humanity […]
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It took the Universe 9.2 billion years to create the Earth, and another 4 billion for complex life. Could we have gotten there faster? The story of how the Universe came […]
Instead of nearly-circular ellipses, comets are extraordinarily elongated, or even on an exit path. Why so different? When you look at how the planets orbit in our Solar System, the […]
In his latest book, ‘When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing’, Daniel Pink makes a convincing case for more naps.
CFC-11 was banned worldwide in 1987 by the Montreal Protocol, but scientists have found increasing levels of the ozone-depleting chemical in the atmosphere since 2013.
Before there were gravitational waves, multi-messenger astronomy got its start with the neutrino. Sometimes, the best-designed experiments fail. The effect you’re looking for might not even occur, meaning that a […]
The James Webb Space Telescope could mean finding a human-sustaining planet in another galaxy.
From a low-brow adolescent distraction to a sophisticated art form and educational tool, comic books are finally having their moment in the sun.
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It’s a problem that we still haven’t solved, and it spells doom for all of our low-Earth orbiting satellites, even today. On October 4th, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, […]
It wasn’t just the Milky Way and Andromeda two billion years ago. Here in the Local Group, our two largest galaxies dominate: Andromeda and the Milky Way. Our Local Group of […]
The Universe began almost perfectly uniform, while today, it’s anything but. Here’s how we grew up. One of the strangest facts about the Universe is how dramatically its changed over time. […]
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.
These chemicals are also widely used in products like clothing, shoes, wrappers and furniture, to make them more stain-resistant, waterproof and/or nonstick.
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 […]
Jonathan Zittell Smith, the most influential scholar of religion of the past half-century, thought that religion “is created for the scholar’s analytic purposes.”
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.
Designed for a 90-day mission each, dust killed the overachieving Spirit and threatens to now kill Opportunity. But it didn’t have to be this way. In 2004, NASA launched two exploration […]
If we know how big the observable Universe is, why can’t we figure out how big the unobservable part is? 13.8 billion years ago, the Big Bang occurred. The Universe was […]
It’s okay to be skeptical. That’s why we have evidence. In all of human history, only 24 people have ever flown to the vicinity of the Moon, traveling hundreds of […]
What can cause a ripple in both space and time? Neutron stars colliding. And what can observe that phenomenon? A two-mile-long laser.
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Flat Earth theory has enjoyed staying power since at least the 19th century despite being patently untrue. Neil deGrasse Tyson, the late Carl Sagan, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and other big thinkers will show you how to disprove this bad idea, all without having to take a journey into space.
July 16, 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the mission that first landed a man on the Moon.
The greatest danger to our planet is not pollution or climate change, but our own despair.
With a total of 10 black holes detected, what we’ve learned about the Universe is truly amazing. On September 14th, 2015, just days after LIGO first turned on at its new-and-improved […]
Those with prediabetes or type-2 diabetes shouldn’t fear eggs anymore, researchers say.
Infographics chart the growing acceptance of drinking during the day, compiled and created by Family Center for Recovery.
You may not recognize the names, but these seven scientists have improved the lives of people the world over.
One of the latest things that has people all abuzz is the claim that Buzz Aldrin saw “an L-shaped object” when he went to the moon.rn
There are many arguments over what makes a theory beautiful, elegant, or compelling. But in the face of data, predictive power is everything. When you look at any phenomenon in […]
With 1.6 billion households in the world, how does Santa do it? With a little Christmas magic… and a lot of science! How does Santa Claus do it? In one long […]