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Science

By altering levels of the naturally-occurring chemical kynurenic acid in the brain, scientists made marijuana’s active ingredient THC less pleasurable, leading monkeys to voluntarily consume 80 percent less of it.

Is This Chemical a Cure For Marijuana Addiction?

By altering levels of kynurenic acid in the brain, scientists made marijuana less pleasurable, leading monkeys to voluntarily consume 80 percent less of it

A new focus of hospitals is keeping you from ending up here.

How Hospitals are Trying to Keep You Out of the Hospital

With a big boost from supercomputers, hospitals are shifting more of their focus to identifying people who need their help staying healthy

“Alexis”

This Photographer Shoots Portraits With a Thermal Camera

Artist Linda Alterwitz uses a camera that detects radiant heat, instead of light, uncovering hidden thermal signatures in everyday scenes

Can ancient skeletons teach us about our genetic past?

Ancient Skeletons Reveal Genetic History of Central Europe

The skeletons, between 7,500 and 3,500 years old, house DNA that trace waves of migrations from regions across Europe

An artist’s depiction of the newly discovered ice-rich, rocky asteroid that was ripped apart by the distant white dwarf star 200 million years ago.

Scientists Just Discovered Water Near a Star 170 Light Years Away

The water was once bound as ice in a small, rocky planet or asteroid that was destroyed 200 million years ago

Blizzident is similar to a mouth-guard, but it is lined with rows of bristles.

Checking the Claim: A 3-D Printed Toothbrush That Cleans Your Mouth in Six Seconds

A startup has developed a custom-fit tool that can brush the entire surface of your teeth all at once

“Please don’t hurt my baby!” this mother meerkat may say to her murderous female superiors.

Baby-Murdering Meerkat Alpha Females Enslave Subordinates As Wet Nurses

After killing lower-level females’ pups, ruthless dominant meerkats force the childless moms to nanny the alpha’s brood—those that resist are exiled

Nest Protect, the latest product to come from Nest Labs, reimagines the lowly household smoke detector.

For $129, Nest’s New Smoke Detector Talks to You

Tony Fadell’s startup unveils the Protect, a smoke detector far less annoying than others on the market

Defrosting the Crests of Inca City, LAT: -81.5° LONG: 296.3° “The nature of this polygonal network, unique on Mars, remains poorly understood, but seems to be linked to volcanic dykes covered by eolian sand. These terrains are close to the South pole and undergo springtime defrosting in dark patches that become progressively larger as temperatures climb,” writes geophysicist Nicolas Mangold in This is Mars.

This Is Mars in Extremely High Resolution

French designer Xavier Barral pored over 30,000 images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera, selecting the most appealing for his book

A new study predicts the year in which major world cities will experience a persistently abnormal climate for the first time.

A New Study Calculates the Year Climate Change Will Hit Your City

Persistently abnormal weather will arrive at different areas at different times, hitting the tropics soonest

Designer Dave Hakkens bills Phonebloks, his concept for a new smartphone, as “a phone worth keeping.”

Is This the Last Smartphone You’ll Ever Need?

A Dutch designer has come up with a smartphone design that allows every essential function to be easily upgradeable

New sensing technology reveals that the alpine swift, a small migratory bird, can remain aloft for more than 200 days without touching down.

This Bird Can Stay in Flight for Six Months Straight

A lightweight sensor attached to alpine swifts reveals that the small migratory birds can remain aloft for more than 200 days without touching down

Artist Nickolay Lamm’s depiction of a polar-grizzly hybrid

What Would a Cross Between a Polar Bear and a Grizzly Really Look Like?

As climate changes and Arctic sea ice melts, species shift habitats and may interbreed. Lamm digitally manipulates photographs to imagine these hybrids

Research in mice shows that heavy drinking triggers cellular changes that interfere with bone formation.

Why Binge Drinking Makes You More Likely to Break Your Bones

Research in mice shows that heavy drinking triggers cellular changes that interfere with bone formation

What is appropriate Google Glass behavior?

Will Google Glass Make Us Better People? Or Just Creepy?

Some think wearable tech is just the thing to help us break bad habits, others that it will let us invade privacy like never before

When rains come, this curcurbit beetle is most definitely not looking for love.

Insects Are Less Randy in the Rain

Beetles, moths and aphids are markedly turned off by the hint of impending rain, likely an evolutionary adaptation to prevent them from getting washed away

Are Diesel Exhaust Fumes to Blame for Honeybee Colony Collapse?

Tests show that diesel pollutants reduce bees’ ability to smell flowers, potentially playing a role in the disappearance of the pollinating insects

A calcified flamingo, preserved by the highly basic waters of Tanzania’s Lake Natron and photographed by Nick Brandt

This Alkaline African Lake Turns Animals into Stone

Photographer Nick Brandt captures haunting images of calcified animals, preserved by the extreme waters of Tanzania’s Lake Natron

New testing of treated wastewater from fracking shows that it contains high levels of radioactive radium, along with chloride and bromide.

Radioactive Wastewater From Fracking Is Found in a Pennsylvania Stream

New testing shows that high levels of radium are being released into the watershed that supplies Pittsburgh’s drinking water

The accelerometer chip in iPhones can accurately detect seismic movement, and perhaps even provide a few crucial seconds of warning before the most energetic waves from an earthquake arrive.

Your Smartphone Could Someday Warn You That Earthquake Waves Are About to Hit

The accelerometer chip in iPhones can detect seismic movement and may even provide a few seconds of warning before the most violent shaking strikes

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