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Articles

Luca Parmitano Shared Exactly How It Feels to Start Drowning in Space

During a spacewalk, the Italian astronaut’s helmet filled with water

“I’d rather gnaw a bean than be gnawed by continual fear.”

Scientists Investigate Whether the City Mouse Is Smarter Than the Country Mouse

Contrary to biologists’ expectations, critters living in cities don’t always have an adaptive edge over their rural counterparts

Kumquat-Eating Crocodilians: Crocs And Gators Love Their Fruits and Veggies

Grapes and berries, fruit and veggies—crocodiles and alligators eat more than meat

The grizzly bear, known as No. 122, eating the corpse of a black bear.

It’s a Bear-Eat-Bear World Out There, Literally

Hikers were startled when they came across a grizzly eating a black bear

Most of China’s Infamous Black Carbon Smog Comes From Cars And Cook Fires

Surprisingly, until now authorities struggled to pinpoint the main pollution culprits behind the black carbon, or soot

Five Unusual Ways Scientists Are Studying Climate Change

Fossilized urine, old naval logbooks and the recent speeds of satellites are among the unexpected records that track changing climate

Food service crew workers

Eating on the March: Food at the 1963 March on Washington

Organizing an event that large was a formidable task in and of itself. Tackling the issue of handling food for the masses was another issue entirely

Zombie Pigeons Are Invading Moscow

In humans, the offending disease produces mild sniffles and flu-like symptoms, not an undead stupor or craving for flesh

An artist’s rendition of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

Back From the Dead: Mothballed Telescope to Hunt for Killer Asteroids

Following the scare from the Russian meteor, an asteroid hunting telescope is brought back online

What is it that makes honey such a special food?

The Science Behind Honey’s Eternal Shelf Life

A slew of factors—its acidity, its lack of water and the presence of hydrogen peroxide—work in perfect harmony, allowing the sticky treat to last forever

Blind People Can Still Identify Race (And Be Racist)

People’s idea of race has far less to do with what people look like, and far more to do with what society teaches us about what people are like

The Last of the Watergate Tapes Show Just How Weasely Nixon Was

Nixon’s public declarations and his private communications were a bundle of contradictions

There’s Now Evidence That Other Europeans Beat the Vikings to the North Atlantic

Someone, and we don’t know who, beat the Vikings to the Faroe Islands by as much as 500 years

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To Control Feral Cat Populations, Cut the Tubes of Dominant Males

Rather than taking the goods entirely from feral cats, researchers now propose vasectomies are the way to go

Optical art

These Patterns Move, But It’s All an Illusion

What happens when your eyes and brain don’t agree?

Go-go legend Chuck Brown poses on the Big Chair, a downtown Anacostia landmark.

Bust Loose at Chuck Brown Birthday Party at American Art Museum

The museum remembers D.C.’s own “Godfather of Go-Go” with a concert today

Watch This Sinkhole Swallow a Chunk of Louisiana Bayou Whole

The hole has been name the Bayou Corne Sinkhole, and has already forced the evacuation of 300 nearby residents, lest they also be swallowed into the swamp

This Astronomer Recreated Starry Night with Hubble Space Photos

Alex Parker used the top 100 images from the Hubble Space telescope to create his rendition of Starry Night

Damaged goods

Just Denting an Aluminum Can Makes People Less Likely to Recycle It

Cutting up paper, too.

Scallops served in shell, cooked over smoking juniper branches and moss.

Deep in the Swedish Wilderness, Discovering One of the World’s Greatest Restaurants

At Fäviken, Chef Magnus Nilsson takes locavorism to an extreme by relying on subarctic foraging, farming, hunting and preserving traditions

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