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So Long, Kepler: NASA’s Crack Exoplanet-Hunter Falls to Mechanical Failure

Kepler has changed our place in the universe, but now the four-year old satellite is down with a broken wheel

E. coli Can Survive the Freezing Cold Winter Hidden in Manure

Even the harsh Canadian winter can’t kill these hardy bacteria

How Often Does the Oldest Person in the World Die?

Every so often you hear about the oldest person in the world dying, but how often does this actually happen?

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Ray Harryhausen, the Godfather of Stop Motion Animation, Dies

Producer and animator Ray Harryhausen, who invented a kind of stop motion model animation called ‘dynamation,’ died today

Mary Thom, Feminist, Historian and Editor, Dies in Motorcycle Crash at 68

Mary Thom, feminist editor, writer and behind-the-scenes activist, died earlier this week in a motorcycle accident in Yonkers

In places where malaria thrives, mosquito nets are used to keep the bugs away from people as they sleep.

In 2010, Malaria Killed 660,000 People, And Now It’s Resistant to the Drugs We Use to Fight It

Scientists have discovered a drug-resistant strain of malaria, and it’s spreading

Math Prodigy Shakuntala Devi, ‘The Human Computer,’ Dies at 83

In 1977, Devi faced off against a computer in a speed calculation race. She won twice

The “fairy coffins” discovered on Arthur’s Seat, a hill above Edinburgh, in 1836. Were they magical symbols, sailors’ memorials—or somehow linked to the city’s infamous mass murderers, Burke and Hare?

Edinburgh’s Mysterious Miniature Coffins

In 1836, three Scottish boys discovered a strange cache of miniature coffins concealed on a hillside above Edinburgh. Who put them there—and why?

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Robert Edwards, 87, Helped Bring Millions of Babies Into This World

In vitro ferlization has helped millions of people have babies. The techniques co-founded just died

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Thieves Break Into Safe to Steal $3 Million Worth of Rhino Horns

Right now the going rate for rhino horn (just about $30,000 a pound) is higher than for gold

Margaret Thatcher in 1984 with Ronald Reagan at Camp David.

Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher Dies at Age 87

Margaret Tatcher, former Prime Minister of Great Britain and first woman to lead a Western power, died today at the age of 87

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Public for the First Time: A Last Letter from Dying Antarctic Explorer Captain Scott

In private hands for the past hundred years, Captain Scott’s final letter is revealed

Are You Here on Earth Just to Make Babies?

If so, what does that really mean for what we do each day, our culture and our society?

Can Watching One Video Help You Die Better?

Since most of us don’t see emergency medicine all that often, we tend to have an unrealistic idea about just how end of life care works

Death Club for Hipsters Wants to Change the Way You See Dying

Called the Order of the Good Death, the club is full of artists, writers, film makers, musicians and other creative types

How Does One Actually Shrink a Head?

How does one take a regular sized human skull and miniaturize it?

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Black Plague Death Pit Dug Up in London

Dug up during London construction, the bodies of those killed by the black plague

Being a Naturalist Is Way More Dangerous Than You Think

Some of these naturalists were murdered by people in the regions they were working. Others died of diseases or lost their lives to their research subjects

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You Should Be Really Scared of the CDC’s ‘Nightmare Bacteria’

Recent reports of this “nightmare bacteria” have grabbed headlines, and there are reports of fatality rates as high as fifty percent. Basically, it’s bad, and the CDC is really worried

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What Does This Head From the Thirteenth Century Tell Us About Medieval Medicine?

What can a dissection specimen from the 13th century tell us about the Dark Ages?

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