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European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, Expedition 36 flight engineer, attired in his Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit, participates in a “dry run” in the International Space Station’s Quest airlock in preparation for the first of two sessions of extravehicular (EVA) scheduled for July 9 and July 16.

Italy Gets Its First Spacewalker

Thanks to Luca Parmitano, Italy is now one of just ten countries that can boast about having an astronaut who’s gone on a spacewalk

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Television Channel for Dogs to Launch in August

DogTV, “the first and only 24/7 television channel scientifically developed and tested for dogs,” is a 24-hour channel that will debut on August 1st

“Waterloo” by C. M. Coolidge

Dogs Have Terrible Eyesight: See for Yourself

Red—green color blind and with awful, awful vision. Life for a dog is kind of a blurry mess

Earthworm Excrement Could Help Archaeologists Measure Age-Old Climate Conditions

Maybe Don’t Feel So Bad For the Men Treed by Tigers for Five Days

They may have planned to sell the cub they killed on the black market

Choir Members’ Hearts Beat in Time With Each Other

According to a new study, choir members may be mimicking not only their fellow choristers’ voices but also their heartbeats

How Do Doctors Care for Prisoners on Hunger Strike?

With individuals prepared to die for a cause, hunger strikes present difficult ethical questions for physicians whose duty is to care for prisoners

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Worldwide, One Out of Four People Paid a Bribe Last Year

While 9 out of 10 people in the survey say they want to act against corruption, many also reported that they had to pay bribes to get simple services

Zebra Finches are one of the birds that hold a trace of ancient hepatitis B in their genes.

Ancient Dinosaur Birds Were Infected With Hepatitis B

82 million years ago hepatitis B infected birds

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You’re Not Supposed to Mine the Grand Canyon, So Why Are These Miners Digging Up Uranium?

There are four mines still turning out ore near the Grand Canyon

Crayola Has At Least 16 Different Names For What Most of Us Would Call ‘Orange’

Crayola is the master of colors. Sort of. In fact, what they’re actually the master of is color naming, and renaming

Bystanders Intervene in One-Third of Bar Room Brawls

If you’re at a bar and somebody starts a fight, what do you do? Root them on? Step in? Join the fight?

First Arrest Caught on Google Glass

Google won’t be changing anything in response to the video, but they do say they’re talking to lawmakers about the implications of recording everything

Popocatépetl eruption on July 8, 2013

Keep an Eye on Popocatépetl, the Volcano Erupting Just Outside Mexico City

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These New Windows Let the Summer Breeze In, But Block the Street Noise

A window speckled with little holes will let the air through, but not the sound

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This Butterfly Metamorphosis Film Was Shot With an iPhone Camera

The morphing of a butterfly into a caterpillar has fascinated humans since we discovered the curious strategy

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Thousands of Species Found in a Lake Cut Off From the World for Millions of Years

Cut off for maybe as much as 15 million years, Antarctica’s Lake Vostok seems to be full of life

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Today in 1948, the U.S. Air Force Accepted Its First Female Member

The first recruit to the Women in the Air Force (known as WAF) was Esther Blake who enlisted on the first day it was even possible for women to do so

2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL 9000 Was Originally a Female

Who knows, perhaps if HAL had been a lady, we’d all be scared of disembodied female voices and Siri would be a man’s voice

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You Get Slow As You Get Older—But Catching a Ruler Is Always Hard

Something as simple as catching a falling ruler triggers a complex process behind the scenes

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