Image: Flickr/Paul Stevenson If the above image disturbs you, move along; this post is not for you! In this study, published this week in the journal Soft Matter (yes, seriously), scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology report their detailed studies of the pooping habits of a wide variety of mammals. Using video recordings of the fecal extrusions and measuring the resulting turds, they deduce that “Despite the length of rectum ranging from 4 to 40 cm, mammals from cats t ...read more

A new report finds that while continued change is ‘locked in,’ there’s still time to stabilize some trends by cutting greenhouse gas emissions A chunk of glacial ice about one story high floats in a fjord near Ny Ålesund in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard in September of 2016. (Photograph: © Tom Yulsman) In the past few years, I’ve heard it from many researchers: Global warming has pushed the Arctic into a completely new state. Now, a comprehensi ...read more

Old Einstein and young Einstein both get their close-ups in Genius. (Credit: National Geographic/Dusan Martincek) If you are going to create a television show called Genius, you had better grapple with the nature of genius. If you are going to do that kind of grappling, you might as well focus on the very first face that comes to mind when people say “genius.” And if you are going to do a show about Albert Einstein–which is exactly where the creators of the new series Genius ...read more

As shown in this illustration, during its Grand Finale mission stage Cassini will fly through the 1200-mile gap between Saturn’s cloud tops and rings 22 times. (Illustration credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Every scientist and engineer who has been part of the Cassini mission team will probably be a bit anxious during tomorrow’s early morning hours. The craft will fly through a 1200-mile-wide gap between Saturn’s cloud tops and its inner ring, giving humankind new views ...read more

A conceptual illustration of the view from a flying car taxi service. Credit: Bell Helicopter Uber sees no need for startups to bet on a risky “if you build it, they will come” strategy for flying taxis. Instead, the tech giant believes the demand for a faster aerial commuting option already exists among its 60 million monthly users–especially if the flying taxi service can cost about the same as hailing an UberX car. As a result, Uber has partnered with s ...read more

Blood Falls in Antarctica. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons) In the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, pristine glaciers are marred in one spot by a striking feature: a crimson stain on the white cliffs, looking not unlike a gaping wound in the ice. The five-story gash goes by the unnerving name of Blood Falls, although the color is not at all organic in nature. The salty water that seeps from the glacier is actually stained red by its rich iron content, and harbors a community of extremophile ...read more

Photo credit: Huffington Post Guest post by Panisa Sundravorakul Instant noodles are delicious, cheap, and easy prepare. This combination of traits make instant noodles a seemingly perfect solution for college students’ hectic schedules and depleted bank accounts. Let us take a moment to appreciate what made instant noodles possible – let us savor the science behind this culinary delicacy. Instant noodles are truly a technological marvel – they can last for up to 12 months on ...read more

(Credit: Filip Fuxa/Shutterstock) For a long time, medieval medicine has been dismissed as irrelevant. This time period is popularly referred to as the “Dark Ages,” which erroneously suggests that it was unenlightened by science or reason. However, some medievalists and scientists are now looking back to history for clues to inform the search for new antibiotics. The evolution of antibiotic-resistant microbes means that it is always necessary to find new drugs to battle microbes th ...read more

(Credit: Soonthorn Wongsaita/Shutterstock) Lamb fetuses have been sustained for four weeks outside of their mothers’ bodies with a new system that mimics a placenta. The system is a step forward for researchers hoping to develop an “artificial placenta” that could allow premature fetuses to continue developing until they are ready for the outside world. It is essentially a fluid-filled bag with ports that allow for oxygen and nutrient delivery, combined with a pump-less oxyge ...read more

Volunteers across the country participate in River Keeper programs. Photo: Virginia State Parks CC BY 2.0 River Keeper. Watershed Keeper. There’s something poetic—maybe a bit Celtic—about these terms, which in the world of citizen science refer to someone monitoring a waterway for soil erosion, contaminants, and loss of biodiversity. Across the United States, with sonorous names like Willamette River Keepers and Chattahoochee River Keepers, citizen scientists are keeping watc ...read more