T Minus 16 Hours Until India Goes to Mars
The countdown is on for India’s first mission to Mars
Your Dog’s Trying to Tell You Something by the Way He Wags His Tail
The tail wag is a complicated form of communication—left and right matter
NASA And JPL Are Better at Pumpkin Carving Than You
Featuring LEDs, laser etching, chocolate fountains, rotating gears and even a replica Mars Rover, these pumpkins will put your simple pumpkin face to shame
Germany Adds a Third Gender to Birth Certificates
Parents of newborns born in Germany now have a third option for the gender section of their birth certificate
How Much of a Subway Map Can One Person’s Brain Process?
A group at MIT has figured out how to build a better subway map, by replicating how the brain processes a map
Oysters Don’t Have Ears But Still Use Sound to Choose Their Homes
Oyster larvae find their homes by responding to the unique sounds of a reef
Stop That Foot Massage! Feet Are Not an Erogenous Zone
If you’ve been begrudgingly giving foot massages, you might want to check with your partner to see if they actually like them
The Gold Rush Left Behind Mercury That’s Still Contaminating California
Leftover mercury will continue to flush through the environment, eventually making its way into the San Francisco bay, for the next 10,000 years
Reindeer Eyes Change Color to Match the Season
Reindeers’ wintery blue eyes are about 1,000 times more sensitive to light than their summery gold ones
Salvador Dali Suffered From the Irrational Fear That Insects Were Crawling All Over His Skin
The condition is almost always accompanied by tactile hallucinations of crawling sensations and visual hallucinations of the non-existent insects
Our Brains Evolved to Recoil at the Sight of Snakes
Around 60 million years ago, our primate ancestors figured out that the sight of a snake meant trouble
A Family Tree of You And Your 13 Million Closest Relatives
A big data project to connect all the people
What Is Sex Like for Someone with Synesthesia?
The researchers found that the people with synesthesia seem to go into more of a trance during sex than those without
These Scientists Are Using Bees to Spread Pesticides
Since they’re already going to the flowers anyway, why not give them some pesticides to carry?
Appreciate the Mathematical Beauty of Every Day Objects
Given math’s applicability to everything in our world and beyond, it’s not so far fetched to think that a theory of everything really does exist
Animals Trapped in the La Brea Tar Pits Would Take Months to Sink
New research shows that animals trapped in the tar would linger for months on end
How Does a Tea Kettle Whistle?
This might seem like an obvious question, but it turns out that no one has looked into it until now
Hibernation Doesn’t Have to Be Cold
Hibernation tends to go hand-in-hand with cold temperatures, but the greater mouse-tailed bat hibernates at a comfortable 68-degrees Fahrenheit
The Very First Americans May Have Had European Roots
Some early Americans came not from Asia, it seems, but by way of Europe
Coral Reefs Are Fighting Back Against Global Warming
When they get stressed by the heat, coral make their own shade by releasing a chemical that helps clouds form
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