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New Research

People are maybe good?

People Are Surprisingly Honest About Returning Lost Wallets

A large new study has found that unwitting subjects were more likely to report a lost wallet as the amount of money inside increased

No horns here!

Cell Phones Are Probably Not Making Us Grow Horns

Scientists and doctors cast doubts on study claiming that prolonged cell phone use is creating bone protrusions on young people’s heads

Boaty McBoatface, awaiting orders.

New Research

Results of Boaty McBoatface’s First Research Mission Published

The little yellow submarine named by the internet explored the Southern Ocean, finding surface winds drive mixing in the deep abyss

New Research

Decades After DDT Was Banned, It Still Impacts Canadian Lakes

A study of sediment cores in remote bodies of water shows the insecticide is still present in high levels, likely altering ecosystems

Cool Finds

Scotland’s Tiny Artificial Islands Date to the Stone Age

Five crannogs in the Outer Hebrides were built 5,000 years ago, perhaps for ritual purposes

Participants likely used wooden bowls known as braziers to burn cannabis and release its mind-altering vapors

Cool Finds

The First Evidence of Smoking Pot Was Found in a 2,500-Year-Old Pot

A new study suggests ancient humans used cannabis to commune with nature, spirits or even the dead

Some of the charred Cheerios.

Cool Finds

Ancient, Inedible ‘Cheerios’ Found in Austrian Archaeological Site

Made from wheat and barley, researchers believe the dough rings were likely ritual objects, not breakfast cereal

A digitally-colorized scanning electron micrograph depiction of a Giardia lamblia protozoan caught in a late stage of cell division, producing a heart-shaped form. Most protozoa, or singled-celled eukaryotes, reproduce asexually, but there is evidence to suggest Giardia lamblia can reproduce sexually as well.

The Evolution of Sex Could Have Provided a Defense Against Cancer Cells

The first sexually reproducing organisms may have found that the energy-intensive enterprise bolstered defenses against malignant cells

When you're sad, it makes your dog sad.

Keep Calm and Don’t Stress Out the Dog

When humans feel anxious, their dogs do too, according to new study

People enjoy a hot afternoon at the Astoria Pool in the borough of Queens on August 17, 2015, in New York City.

New Research

Heat Waves Could Kill Thousands of People in U.S. Cities if Climate Goals Aren’t Met

A new study calculates that as temperatures increase, up to 5,800 people will die in New York and 2,400 in L.A. during the hottest years

People who drink exclusively from plastic water bottles ingest an additional 90,000 microplastics each year, researchers found.

Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

A new study found that we consume between 74,000 and 121,000 plastic particles annually—and that’s likely an underestimate

New Research

Nanoscale Structures Give Dragonfish Their Terrible, Invisible Teeth

Crystals in the enamel and an unusual interior structure render the giant teeth invisible, making the fish one of the deep seas’s most fearsome hunters

Artist's rendering of the planets orbiting PDS 70.

Future of Space Exploration

Astronomers Snap a Rare Picture of Two Baby Planets

The Very Large Telescope imaged Planets PDS 70b and PDS 70c about 370 light years away creating a gap in the gas and dust disk around their star

Lots of snacks, please.

Elephants Use Smell to Sniff Out Snack Quantities

When presented with two lidded buckets containing sunflower seeds, elephants seemed able to choose the one with more food

New Research

New Study Suggests Leonardo da Vinci Had A.D.H.D.

The master painter had difficulties with procrastination, finishing projects and staying on task his entire life

New Research

China’s ‘CRISPR Babies’ May Be More Likely to Die Young

The mutation that was intended to make them resistant to H.I.V. has now been linked to a shorter life expectancy

New Research

Ancient Fingerprints Show Men and Women Both Made Pottery in the American Southwest

Long thought to be primarily women’s work, new analysis of ceramic fragments shows both sexes created pottery at Chaco Canyon

Were Saber-Toothed Cat Fangs Strong Enough to Puncture Bone?

Some experts think not, but a new study suggests that holes in two saber-toothed cat skulls were caused by in-fighting

New Research

New Study Shows Coffee—Even 25 Cups a Day of It—Isn’t Bad for Your Heart

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London have found that coffee consumption does not stiffen arteries

One of naked mole rats' claims to fame is their high pain tolerance when in contact with acid or high heat. These tough critters couldn't take the sting of wasabi like their furrier cousins, highveld mole rats, however.

Mole Rats Can’t Feel Wasabi’s Painful Kick, Hydrochloric Acid Burns or Hardly Any Pain at All

And studying the impervious critters might help scientists figure out new ways to treat pain in humans

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