Latest News

A visitor stands on a ladder next to a blooming penis plant to take a photo

Girthy 'penis plant' blooms for the first time, sparking excitement at Dutch garden

By Nicoletta Lanese

It's the size of a human and smells of rotting flesh.

Homo bodoensis may help to untangle how human lineages moved and interacted across the globe.

Newly named human species may be the direct ancestor of modern humans

By Charles Q. Choi

Homo bodoensis is named after a 600,000-year-old skull found in Bodo D'ar, Ethiopia, in 1976.

NASA's Perseverance rover captured this shot of its surroundings on the floor of Jezero Crater on Oct. 22, 2021, using one of its navigation cameras. Mission team members posted the image on Twitter three days later.

Perseverance rover snaps stunning images of Mars after communications blackout

By Mike Wall

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has emerged from its first "solar conjunction" blackout and gotten back to work on the Red Planet.

Pareidolia tricked NASA into seeing Godzilla in this Spitzer Space Telescope image of a cloud of dust and gas.

Does this 'Godzilla' nebula really look like a space lizard?

By Stephanie Pappas

What do you see in the photo?

a 1,000-year-old mask was painted, in part, with human blood.

Ancient golden mask from Peru was painted with human blood

By Yasemin Saplakoglu

A 1,000-year-old mask discovered on the head of an ancient skeleton was painted using human blood, according to a new study.

Running headphones deals: Image of man running with headphones

Running headphones deals: get the best price on these workout essentials

By Molly Cleary

DEAL All the best running headphones deals for getting the motivation to smash your workout.

Planet Earth

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A visitor stands on a ladder next to a blooming penis plant to take a photo

Girthy 'penis plant' blooms for the first time, sparking excitement at Dutch garden

By Nicoletta Lanese

It's the size of a human and smells of rotting flesh.

The CGI talking dinosaur gives a speech at the UN General Assembly in the new video.

Talking dinosaur invades UN to give climate change speech in bizarre, yet brilliant, new video

By Harry Baker

The UN Development Programme has released a new video addressing climate change and fossil fuel subsidies starring a CGI talking dinosaur.

  1. 1
    Bronze Age Tarim mummies aren't who scientists thought they were
  2. 2
    8 benefits of stretching
  3. 3
    Tiny 'immortal' crab entombed in amber discovered in a first of its kind
  4. 4
    Is the rowing machine a good workout?
  5. 5
    Rise in H5N6 bird flu may be explained by more-infectious variant, experts worry
  1. These lidar images show San Lorenzo (left), an Olmec site that peaked between 1400 B.C. and 1150 B.C.), and Aguada Fénix (right), a Maya site primarily occupied between 1000 B.C. and 800 B.C. Both show a similar pattern of 20 rectangular platforms lining the plaza. In later Maya calendars, 20 was the base unit for counting days, suggesting that this timekeeping system was already in development before 1000 B.C.
    1
    Hidden Maya complexes hint that the famous calendar was already in use 3,400 years ago
  2. 2
    Photos: The beginnings of Maya civilization
  3. 3
    Henry VIII's favorite ship has a bacteria problem, and now scientists have ID'ed the culprits
  4. 4
    These retouched photos of Shackelton's 1914 expedition look like they were taken yesterday
  5. 5
    Wreck of US ship that hunted Nazi spies in the Arctic finally discovered

Space and Physics

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NASA's Perseverance rover captured this shot of its surroundings on the floor of Jezero Crater on Oct. 22, 2021, using one of its navigation cameras. Mission team members posted the image on Twitter three days later.

Perseverance rover snaps stunning images of Mars after communications blackout

By Mike Wall

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has emerged from its first "solar conjunction" blackout and gotten back to work on the Red Planet.

New images from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope show where supernova remnants emit radiation a billion times more energetic than visible light. The images bring astronomers a step closer to understanding the source of some of the universe's most energetic particles -- cosmic rays. This composite shows the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant across the spectrum: Gamma rays (magenta) from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope; X-rays (blue, green) from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory; visible light (yellow) from the Hubble Space Telescope; infrared (red) from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope; and radio (orange) from the Very Large Array near Socorro, N.M.

What are cosmic rays?

By Paul Sutter

Cosmic rays are tiny subatomic particles racing through the universe at nearly the speed of light — and they're not so nice.

History

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Homo bodoensis may help to untangle how human lineages moved and interacted across the globe.

Newly named human species may be the direct ancestor of modern humans

By Charles Q. Choi

Homo bodoensis is named after a 600,000-year-old skull found in Bodo D'ar, Ethiopia, in 1976.

a 1,000-year-old mask was painted, in part, with human blood.

Ancient golden mask from Peru was painted with human blood

By Yasemin Saplakoglu

A 1,000-year-old mask discovered on the head of an ancient skeleton was painted using human blood, according to a new study.

Health

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Running headphones deals: Image of man running with headphones

Running headphones deals: get the best price on these workout essentials

By Molly Cleary

DEAL All the best running headphones deals for getting the motivation to smash your workout.

DEAL
Treadmill deals: Close up of shoes on a treadmill

Treadmill deals: which is the right treadmill deal for you?

By Maddy Biddulph

DEALS Here are some great treadmill deals to help you reach your fitness goals in the comfort of your own home.

DEALS
Cuddling releases oxytocin

Oxytocin: Facts about the 'cuddle hormone'

By Stephanie Pappas, Ailsa Harvey

Reference Oxytocin is a hormone that plays a large role in social interactions and social bonding.

Reference

Animals

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An underwater photo of a great white shark with its jaws open at the surface off southern Australia.

Great white sharks can't see a difference between humans and prey

By Patrick Pester

Great white sharks can't see the difference between humans swimming, humans paddling on surfboards and seals, which may lead to mistaken identity when they are juveniles.

Scientist's hand holding a three-day-old greater honeyguide chick

Parasitic birds 'exercise' in their eggs, hatch … and then pulverize their nestmates

By Nicoletta Lanese

Brood parasite babies wriggle in their eggs to build muscle, a study suggests.

The purpleback flying squid (Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis) that swam past the ROV investigating the shipwreck in the Gulf of Aqaba.

Giant purpleblack flying squid photobombs crew investigating shipwreck

By Laura Geggel

A team mapping the seafloor in the northern Red Sea unexpectedly spotted a purpleback flying squid near a previously unknown shipwreck.

Strange News

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A car drives with "Area 51" written on the back before the start of a "Storm Area 51" spinoff event called "Area 51 Basecamp" on September 20, 2019 near Alamo, Nevada.

Siege of top-secret Area 51 began as a joke. Officials prepared to use deadly force in response.

By Mindy Weisberger

UFO enthusiasts who rallied in 2019 to invade Area 51 may have been joking about "storming" the base. But law enforcement officials took the idea very, very seriously.

This photo does NOT show the rattlesnakes under the California home. Here, four gravid timber rattlesnakes basking at rookery area near their den.

Why did more than 90 rattlesnakes move into a California home?

By Stephanie Pappas

More than 90 rattlesnakes were pulled from the foundation of a California home, where the snakes may have been gathering to give birth.

A hammerhead shark that is preserved in alcohol in the East Wing of the Natural History Museum in Berlin, Germany.

Why is alcohol used to preserve things?

By Donavyn Coffey

Here's how alcohol can help preserve DNA, tissue samples and even entire organisms.

Culture

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When babies are born, they breathe through their lungs for the first time.

What happens when a baby takes its first breath?

By Donavyn Coffey

Fetuses don't breathe oxygen in utero, so how do newly born babies figure it out?

Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders. This black and white image of a dewy spider web on a tree branch would not be attractive to someone with arachnophobia.

What is arachnophobia?

By Jennifer Leman

Arachnophobia is a fear of arachnids, a group of arthropods that includes spiders, scorpions, ticks and mites.

A side profile photo of a person and a robot face to face.

Will humans ever be immortal?

By Patrick Pester

Humans are getting better at staving off death our technological and medical advances. But could humans ever become immortal?

Tech

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World's longest bridge

What's the world's longest bridge?

By Katharine Gammon, Ailsa Harvey

Reference Explore the incredible engineering behind the longest bridges in the world

Reference
China test-fired a massive new solid-fueled rocket motor on Oct. 19, 2021.

China just test-fired a massive solid-fueled rocket

By Andrew Jones

China has test fired a huge new solid rocket motor, creating more propulsion options for the country’s growing space activities.

Genetic engineering, Cripsr concept art.

What is CRISPR?

By Aparna Vidyasagar, Nicoletta Lanese

CRISPR is a simple yet powerful tool for editing genomes. It allows researchers to easily alter DNA sequences and modify gene function.