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Science and Tech
LIGO can detect the inspirals and mergers of the lowest-mass black holes, but not the biggest ones. Here's how pulsars can help.
An out-of-this-world idea could help reduce some of the risk of solar geoengineering.
Photosynthesis is powerful but very inefficient. Humans can improve on this biochemical process to help the planet.
Two ICU physicians offer a new approach to stopping it.
On Earth, carbon can form millions of compounds, while silicon is largely stuck inside rocks. But elsewhere, silicon could form the basis of life.
There's a fatal prion infection killing deer and elk across North America.
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Humans won’t survive if we stay on Earth. Michio Kaku explains.
Modern cosmology conjectures different possible fates for the Universe and thus for the end of time. Details depend on which model is right.
More than 90% of human faces are home to mites that live in our skin pores. These friendly guests might be merging with us.
The biology behind your office's air conditioning war.
From the explosions themselves to their unique and vibrant colors, the fireworks displays we adore require quantum physics.
Before gunpowder was introduced to the West, medieval Arabs devised grenades using crockery.
On July 4, we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the discovery of the Higgs boson, the missing piece of the Standard Model of particle physics.
1859's Carrington event gave us a preview of how catastrophic the Sun could be for humanity. But it could get even worse than we imagined.
Does memory start to work only at a certain age?
Your eyes are playing tricks on you.
The idea of gravitational redshift crossed Einstein's mind years before General Relativity was complete. Here's why it had to be there.
Since at least 600 BC, people have been mesmerized by the concept of the infinite.
Research sheds light on social behavior of these mysterious predators.
No matter how beautiful, elegant, or compelling your idea is, if it disagrees with observation and experiment, it's wrong.
Experts believe they could cut the time it takes a rocket to reach Mars by up to 25%, shaving about two months off the trip.
Experiments cannot confirm what theory predicts about neutrinos. And particle physicists have no idea why.
A "bio-battery" made from genetically engineered bacteria could store excess renewable energy and release it as needed.
Here's what the weather phenomenon baking large parts of the country actually means.
In 200 years, the mortality rate for children under the age of five (per 1,000 live births) has dropped from 40% to 3.7%.
Some of the coastal areas were not repopulated for millennia afterward, showing that there was a long-lasting memory of this tragic event.
The Universe is expanding, and the Hubble constant tells us how fast. But how can it be a constant if the expansion is accelerating?