Brandon Specktor
Brandon Specktor writes about the science of everyday life for Live Science, and previously for Reader's Digest magazine, where he served as an editor for five years. He grew up in the Sonoran Desert, but believes Sonoran hot dogs are trying way too hard.

Articles by: Brandon Specktor

Artist's concept of a space hurricane, pouring plasma high over the North Pole.

First-ever 'space hurricane' detected over the North Pole

By Brandon Specktor

Astronomers detected the first-known 'space hurricane' raging over the North Pole for 8 hours in 2014, a new study found.

The Gulf Stream current (red) speeds warm water up the eastern coast of the United States, where it clashes with cold water in the North Atlantic.

The Gulf Stream is slowing to a 'tipping point' and could disappear

By Brandon Specktor

The Gulf Stream, one of Earth's major climate-regulating currents, is flowing slower now than it has in 1600 years. Climate change could kill it.

Mount Etna erupts in February, 2021

Oozing tendrils of lava spew from Mount Etna in spectacular nighttime photos

By Brandon Specktor

Mount Etna, Europe's most active volcano, has been erupting for nearly two weeks straight, and the photos are stunning.

Swirling hills in northern Russia have scientists perplexed.

Mysterious stripes spotted over Russia in satellite images — and NASA is perplexed

By Brandon Specktor

Scientists can't agree on why these hills in the Russian Arctic ripple with stripes.

An artist's concept of an electric Martian dust storm. New research shows that Martian storms may "crackle with electricity," but are probably incapable of generating long bolts of lightning.

Martian dust storms may spark electric purple glow

By Brandon Specktor

Colliding dust particles on Mars probably produce static electricity, a new experiment reveals.

The Perseverance rover's parachute contains a secret binary code in its red and white stripes.

There's a secret code in the Mars rover's parachute

By Brandon Specktor

NASA scientists teased the code's existence on Monday. The Internet solved it within 6 hours.

Remnants of a "submarine" style moonshine still found in South Carolina's Francis Marion National Forest

Abandoned moonshine still linked to Al Capone uncovered in South Carolina woods

By Brandon Specktor

Archaeologists uncovered an illegal 1920s-era liquor still in South Carolina that may have been linked to Al Capone's criminal empire.

Saltwater crocodiles are the largest species alive today.

Giant 14-foot-long crocodile found with human remains in stomach

By Brandon Specktor

The remains likely belong to a local fisherman who went missing last week, the government said.

Eleven fragments of the once-mighty iceberg A-68a swirl around South Georgia island, north of Antarctica

World's largest iceberg disintegrates into 'alphabet soup,' NASA photo shows

By Brandon Specktor

The world's largest iceberg has disintegrated into an 'alphabet soup' of mini ice island, new NASA imagery shows.

A white dwarf star sucks in the rocky remains of an Earth-like planet.

White dwarfs wear the crushed corpses of planets in their atmospheres

By Brandon Specktor

When a star collapses into a white dwarf, it throws its solar system into total chaos. Sometimes, that chaos leaves a mark in its atmosphere.

The supercontinent of Nuna-Rodinia broke up at the end of the Proterozoic era, ending a billion years of no new mountain formation, a new study says.

Earth's mountains disappeared for a billion years, and then life stopped evolving

By Brandon Specktor

For a billion years Earth's mountains stopped growing, and may have starved the sea of nutrients, new research finds.

Mining pits glitter like gold in this aerial photo of the Peruvian Amazon

'Rivers of gold' rush through the Peruvian Amazon in stunning NASA photo

By Brandon Specktor

An ISS astronaut got a perfect view of the gold prospecting pits in the Peruvian Amazon.

Nanda Devi is the second-tallest mountain in India.

18 dead and hundreds missing in catastrophic Himalayan avalanche

By Brandon Specktor

Part of a glacier collapsed in the Indian Himalayas, triggering an avalanche that destroyed one dam and damaged another. Hundreds are feared missing or dead.

T-haplotype sperm (blue trails) can poison and disable their competitors (green trails), forcing them to swim in circles.

Devious sperm 'poison' their rivals, forcing them to swim in circles until they die

By Brandon Specktor

Mouse sperm carrying a genetic sequence called the t-haplotype will poison their competitors, then make an 'antidote' only for themselves, new research finds.

A satellite images shows the disintegration of iceberg A68a

World's largest iceberg shatters into a dozen pieces

By Brandon Specktor

The world's largest iceberg broke off of Antarctica in 2017; now, it's shattering into more than a dozen pieces.

This Madagascar chameleon is the world's smallest reptile.

World's smallest reptile fits on your fingertip

By Brandon Specktor

The Madagascar chameleon Brookesia nana measures half an inch long, and may be critically endangered. He also has huge genitals

Earth is about to lose its second moon, forever

By Brandon Specktor

Minimoon SO 2020, a rocket booster that has been orbiting Earth for about 60 years, will drift off forever next month.

A view of the tent as the rescuers found it on Feb. 26, 1959. The tent had been cut open from inside, and most of the skiers had fled in socks or barefoot.

Russia's 'Dyatlov Pass' conspiracy theory may finally be solved 60 years later

By Brandon Specktor

The infamous Dyatlov Pass incident, where 9 hikers died under mysterious circumstances, just got its first scientific explanation after 60 years of speculation.

The spiral galaxy NGC 4535 is better known as the 'Lost Galaxy' for its famously hazy appearance.

NASA finds 'Lost Galaxy' shining out of Virgo's bosom

By Brandon Specktor

This hazy spiral galaxy is one of the largest in the Virgo cluster — a collection of more than 2,000 galaxies.

The Italian Coast Guard tows the carcass of a large finback whale into the port of Naples.

Dead whale in the Mediterranean probably 'one of the largest' ever found

By Brandon Specktor

Italian divers discovered the corpse of a large finback whale near Naples. Authorities say it could be one of the largest whales ever found in the Mediterranean.

Ice streaks the sand dunes of the Sahara Desert in northwestern Algeria.

Ice covers the Sahara Desert for just 4th time in 50 years

By Brandon Specktor

The dunes of the northwestern Sahara desert were streaked with ice on Tuesday, creating a surreal landscape

A deep-sea hydrothermal chimney pours volcanic fluid into the ocean near New Zealand.

Hundreds of never-before-seen life-forms live in this 6,000-foot-deep volcano's acid jets

By Brandon Specktor

Researchers discover 300 novel microbes living near the blazing hot jets of an underwater volcano near New Zealand

This NASA illustration depicts an O'Neill Cylinder: a floating human habitat orbiting an alien planet. A new paper proposes building a mega-colony of them around the dwarf planet, Ceres.

Humans could move to this floating asteroid belt colony in the next 15 years, astrophysicist says

By Brandon Specktor

A new paper proposes building a 'megasatellite' of human habitats around the dwarf planet Ceres.

Charred trees are seen along Pallet Creek Road during the Bobcat Fire in Valyermo, California, September 18, 2020.

The planet is dying faster than we thought

By Brandon Specktor

A triple-threat of climate change, biodiversity loss and overpopulation is bearing down on Earth, a new paper from 17 scientists warns.

U.S. Navy videos of alleged UFO sightings were previously available but had not been officially declassified.

CIA releases entire collection of UFO-related documents to truth-seeking website

By Brandon Specktor

The CIA just turned over 2,700 pages of UFO-related material to The Black Vault, a free repository of UFO records online.