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The Chemistry and Physics Behind the Perfect Cup of Coffee
How science helps your barista brew your espresso perfectly every time
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Opening Warm Champagne Leads to a Pop of Blue
This flash of color is caused by the same process that colors the sky with its blue hues
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Why Horses and Their Ilk Are the Only One-Toed Animals Still Standing
Early horses had 15 toes, but life on the plains led to a stronger center toe, leading to life on four hooves
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X-Rays Reveal Details of Portrait Once Hidden Under Vesuvius’ Ash
Using X-ray fluorescence, researchers have mapped the pigments used on a crumbling painting in Herculaneum
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Half of Our Atoms May Come From Other Galaxies
According to computer simulations, large galaxies may grow by sucking in matter smaller star clusters expel
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Astronaut Captures ‘Awesome Sauce’ of Aurora From Space
Humans have been amazed for millennia by these atmospheric events
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Could You Crash Into a Black Hole?
Probably not, but it’s fun to think about
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Astronomers Find the Smallest Star Yet
The faint orb is just a smidgen bigger than Saturn and around 2,000 to 3,000 times dimmer than our own sun
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Magnetic Field Around Uranus Are a Chaotic Mess
Using data from the Voyager 2 mission, researchers have modeled Uranus’s off-kilter magnetosphere
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Researchers Use Particle Accelerator to Peek Inside Fossilized Poop
This new method could reveal just what dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures ate
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Scientists Hear Two Even More Ancient Black Holes Collide
At this point, detecting ripples in the fabric of space-time is practically commonplace
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Supercomputers Create Breathtaking Simulations of Spiral Galaxies
The simulations took months of modeling to complete—and the results can help scientists learn about the formation of galaxies
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The 400-Year-Old Mystery of These Bullet-Shattering Glass Drops May Finally Be Solved
The tadpole-shaped glass structures can survive a hammer blow but explode if their tail is squeezed
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A Grand Unified Theory of Pooping
Why you and an elephant spend the same amount of time on the john
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This App Puts a Science Lab in Your Pocket
Lab4U turns smartphones and tablets into scientific tools
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Mathematician Emmy Noether Should Be Your Hero
She revolutionized mathematics, and then was forgotten because she was a woman
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Watch Declassified Nuclear Bomb Tests Online
Weapons physicist Greg Sprigg has spent five years declassifying, digitizing and reanalyzing film of the U.S.’s 210 open air nuclear detonations
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Why (Part of) the International Space Station Will Soon Be the Coldest Place in the Universe
An icebox-like lab will help scientists get a grip on a phenomenon that’s hard to spot on Earth
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Large Hadron Collider Gets “Open Heart Surgery”
The massive physics experiment in Switzerland is receiving an upgrade
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