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New Research

The Green Bank Telescope pictured—and other radio telescopes like it—are listening for "technosignatures," or possible transmissions from intelligent life forms

New Research

In the Search for Aliens, We’ve Only Analyzed a Small Pool in the Cosmic Ocean

A new study estimates how much of outer space we’ve scoured for other life and finds we haven’t exactly taken a deep dive

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New Research

Watch the Strongest Indoor Magnetic Field Blast Doors of Tokyo Lab Wide Open

The unexpectedly large 1,200 tesla boom could help researchers explore quantum physics and help in the quest for nuclear fusion

Cool Finds

Moths Love Sipping the Salty Tears of Sleeping Birds

A researcher in the Amazon happened up on the rare sight in the dead of night while looking for reptiles and amphibians

Pain surging from the right side of the abdomen is often an indication of appendicitis, which is typically treated with surgical removal of the organ. Researchers were able to use antibiotics to relieve symptoms and avoid surgery in some patients, a new study suggests.

Antibiotics May Treat Appendicitis Without Surgery

A new study has found that around 60 percent of patients who were treated with antibiotics did not have a recurrence of appendicitis within five years

New Research

People Braved Australia’s Western Desert Roughly 45,000 Years Ago

Newly dated artifacts from a rock shelter show humans were in the inhospitable Little Sandy Desert at least 10,000 years earlier than previously thought

Bones of the newly described Vorombe titan

Newly Described Elephant Bird Is the Biggest Yet

A new study is bringing long-overdue scientific rigor to the elephant bird’s family tree

New Research

New Fossil Dubbed ‘Giant Thunderclap at Dawn’ Shows How Big Dinos Went From Two Legs to Four

A new species discovered in South Africa shows how dinosaurs went from bipedal beasts to four-legged giants like brontosaurus

New Research

Hey Fellow Kids, This Is How You Flip a Water Bottle

New paper by undergrads illuminates the physics behind the Water Bottle Challenge

New Research

World War II Bombing Shockwaves Were Strong Enough to Reach Edge of Space

Analysis of radio records in the ionosphere showed that Allied Forces’ bombing runs over Germany altered the upper atmosphere

Study participants Kelly Thomas, who was paralyzed in a truck crash and Jeff Marquis, who was injured while mountain biking.

New Research

How Implanted Electrodes Helped Paralyzed People Stand and Walk Again

Two new studies demonstrate that epidural stimulation and intensive therapy can help people overcome paralysis from spinal cord injuries

New Research

Explorers Will Face Dangerous Amounts of Radiation On Their Trip to Mars

New data from the Mars Trace Gas Orbiter shows just the flight there and back alone will expose astronauts to 60 percent the lifetime radiation dose

Researchers first discovered Dickinsonia fossils back in 1946.

New Research

The World’s Earliest Known Animal May Have Been a Blob-Like Undersea Creature

Traces of fat found on a 558-million-year-old fossil suggest Dickinsonia was an animal rather than fungus, plant or single-celled protozoa

R.I.P., guppy.

New Research

Praying Mantis Seen Hunting Fish for the First Time

The ravenous insect repeatedly returned to the hunting site, suggesting praying mantises may be capable of complex learning

Researchers fed microplastics to mosquito larvae in the lab.

New Research

Mosquitoes Are Passing Microplastics Up the Food Chain

These reviled insects are adding another charge to their rap sheet: ferrying harmful microplastics ingested from contaminated water

New Research

The Universe’s Strongest Material is a Cosmic Lasagna

A new study suggests that the “nuclear pasta” found in neutron stars is 10 billion times stronger than steel

New Research

This Pulsar is Giving Off Weird Infrared Light and We’re Not Sure Why

Researchers believe a disk of dust from a supernova or a pulsar wind nebula could explain the strange energy signal

An amphipod with its victim clamped on its back.

Kidnapper Crustaceans Use Tiny Mollusks as Unwitting Shields

Amphipods wear the so-called sea angels, which secrete chemicals that keep certain predators at bay, like backpacks

Venting frustrations

Trending Today

Cannibalism, Roller Coasters and Self-Colonoscopies in the News? It’s Ig Nobel Season

The satirical awards celebrate some of the strangest scientific research

New Research

How Much Plastic Does It Take To Kill a Sea Turtle?

A new study suggests one piece of plastic has a 22 percent chance of killing a turtle that eats it, and 14 pieces will kill half

Though the mummified penguins died years ago due to "extreme climatic anomalies," modern day penguins are still at risk of the same fate in today's changing climate.

Here’s How Hundreds of Baby Penguins Became Mummified in Antarctica

A new study posits that ‘extreme climatic anomalies’ caused the penguins to become mummified in two mass die-offs hundred of years ago

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