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Stories from Colin Schultz

The World’s Carbon Sinks May Be Running Out of Room

The Earth’s biosphere may be absorbing less carbon than it used to

Pew pew

A Military Contractor Just Went Ahead And Used an Xbox Controller For Their New Giant Laser Cannon

The army’s new laser cannon is controlled with an Xbox controller

Cockatoos Learn to Use Tools by Watching Each Other

With a teacher, Goffin cockatoo learn to use new tools more quickly

The Keeling Curve Gets a Much-Needed Boost from Google’s Schmidt

The long-running carbon dioxide monitoring program got a $500,000 grant from the Schmidts

Why Environmentalists Should Keep Quiet About Geoengineering

If it seems like there’s a technological fix, people lose interest in helping

Approximately a Third of Americans Have Been the Victim of Sexual Violence

The CDC’s latest rape and sexual violence statistics are just as disturbing as ever

Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

The World Has a Whopping 117 Million Lakes—For Now

A new survey catalogs the world’s (steadily disappearing) lakes

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Turns Out We Live in the Laniakea Galactic Supercluster

Add another line to your celestial address: Astronomers just found out we live in the Laniakea Galactic Supercluster

“Unschooled” Kids Do Just Fine in College

Children used to self-directed learning and intellectual freedom can handle the strictures of college

Lego Is the Biggest Toy Company in the World

Lego overtook Mattel this year to become the world’s most-profitable toy company

More Evidence That Arctic Warming Is Behind the Weak Polar Vortex

Scientists lay out how melting sea ice may destabilize the Arctic atmospheric circulation

Oh we're sorry, were you trying to be shifty?

Some Cell Phone Towers Don’t Just Relay Your Call, They Listen In

The surprisingly affordable way to spy on someone’s phone

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The Surprisingly Complicated Reason Why Stars Look Like They Have Points

Stars are star-shaped because of imperfection in our eyes

RIP Sexy Space Geckos

The five geckos sent to space have all died

A rhesus macaque. Not one with ebola

Ebola Drug ZMapp Cured 18 Monkeys

How well the drug works in humans, however, isn’t so clear

No amount of scrubbing is going to stop the fact that your house is coated in your bacteria

Your House’s Germs Are Yours, And They’ll Follow You If You Move

Your house is laced with microbes shed by your body

An artist's concept of the SLS heavy-lift rocket

Meet the Newly Approved Rocket That Will Take People To Mars

The approval of the Space Launch System is an important step for NASA

A protestor holding his hands up chants "Hands up, don't shoot" as SWAT police unit stands guard during protests against police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the United States, around midnight of Aug. 18, 2014.

Walking in Formation Makes Men Feel More Powerful

Men who walk in lockstep see outsiders as less threatening

People ride past a board with control and prevention information of the Ebola epidemic outbreak in the Ebola-affected Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone, Aug. 17, 2014.

What Will It Take to Stop Ebola?

The WHO has a plan for stopping the Ebola outbreak

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