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Stories from Jason Daley

Polls Are Still As Accurate As They Were 75 Years Ago

A new study shows polling is not undergoing a collapse despite what conventional wisdom might suggest

Ancient Humans Weathered the Toba Supervolcano Just Fine

New studies suggest the largest eruption in the last 2 million years didn’t push humanity to the edge of extinction as previously hypothesized

Saturn's hazy moon Titan

Purple Haze: Alien Atmospheres Recreated In the Lab

By combining various gases with plasma, researchers are learning about the haze around distant planets

New Study Finds Fake News Spreads Faster and Deeper Than Verified Stories on Twitter

Looking at 126,000 stories sent by ~3 million people, researchers found that humans, not bots, were primarily responsible for the spread of disinformation

Unraveling the Genetics Behind Why Some People “See” Sound and “Hear” Color

Researchers find several genes that regulate the wiring for synesthesia in the brain

An artist's illustration of the Tiangong-1 space lab in orbit.

Five Things to Know About China’s Falling Space Station

For one, it’s exceedingly unlikely to cause you harm

The eight cyclones orbiting Jupiter's north pole.

New Juno Data Gives Unprecedented Glimpse Beneath Jupiter’s Stormy Shell

The massive planet’s storm go much deeper than previously suspected and its interior rotates nearly as a solid mass

How Conflict in the Balkans Is Screwing Up Europe’s Clocks

Kosovo and Serbia’s clash over energy dropped the oscillation of the Euro grid, making clocks run as much as six minutes behind

Thismia neptunis

After 150 Years, This Bizarre Plant Was Rediscovered in Malaysia

Thismia neptunis spends most of its life underground, only making a rare appearance to bloom

Wreck of Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Lexington Found 76 Years After It Was Scuttled in Battle

The ship was sunk by an American destroyer so it couldn’t be captured in the Battle of Coral Sea, considered to be the first carrier battle in history

No, Your Nose Isn’t as Big as That Selfie Makes It Seem

If you take a selfie from just 12 inches away, it may make your nose look 30 percent bigger

Cudjo Lewis, the last survivor transported to Alabama on the Clotilda

Search Continues for Last American Slave Ship After Recent Wreck Ruled Out

The Clotilda illegally transported 110 enslaved people from present-day Benin to Alabama more than 50 years after the U.S. outlawed the slave trade

Making history

Five Things to Know About Roger Bannister, the First Person to Break the 4-Minute Mile

The Oxford medical student, who died on March 3 at age 88, broke what was believed to be an impossible record

Termites Are Moving in With Cockroaches, Taxonomically

The wood-munching critters are technically just social roaches

"The Night," Michele di Rodolfo del Ghirlandaio, oil on panel, Galleria Colonna, Rome, Italy

Earliest Images of Breast Cancer Found in Renaissance Paintings

The signs of illness in the paintings illustrate that breast cancer is not just a modern malady

Scene from the 1967 Detroit riot.

Study Shows Little Change Since Kerner Commission Reported on Racism 50 Years Ago

An update to the landmark study finds there is now more poverty and segregation in America

Artists interpretation of the earliest stars

Astronomers May Have Just Detected the Universe’s First Stars

A long-sought radio signal indicates the first stars began burning 180 million years after the initial Big Bang

Some of Earth’s Deep Sea Microbes Could Survive on Saturn’s Moon

A methane-producing archaea survived simulations of Enceladus’ extreme conditions, hinting at the possibility of similar extraterrestrial life

Artist's illustration of PTScientist's Audi Quattro Lunar Rover visiting NASA's 1972 rover.

4G Coverage Bound for the Moon in 2019

A private moon mission scheduled for next year will use an ultra-compact network to beam back live images of the lunar surface

One Man’s Search to Find the Families of the “Deportees” in the Famous Woody Guthrie Song

Seventy years after the 1948 crash, Tim Hernandez is bringing new recognition to the 28 unidentified “braceros” who died when the plane blew up

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