Tea bags made of plastic can release billions of microplastics into our bodies. (Credit: AnikonaAnn/Shutterstock) There’s a new trend in tea — out with the old, flat paper tea bags and in with the pyramid-shaped mesh bags that allow bigger leaves extra breathing room. The bags, which have been around since at least 2006, are sometimes called “silken” sachets. They can be made from hemp, corn-based plastics, nylon or PET (polyethylene terephthalate). But most often it&r ...read more

Working out too intensely for too long can cause our brains to become fatigued. (Credit: Flamingo Images/Shutterstock) For years, the National Institute of Sports, Exercise and Performance (INSEP) in France had been studying an unusual phenomenon. If an athlete’s workout regiments were ramped up, it didn’t always lead to a better performance — even if that athlete felt like they were working harder than before.  The organization called this phenomenon overreaching, a ...read more

This artist's illustration shows a black hole ripping a star into a thin stream of gas that then slams back into itself, causing a bright shock that astronomers detected earlier this year. (Credit: Illustration by Robin Dienel/Courtesy Carnegie Institution for Science) A NASA spacecraft built to find alien planets just spotted a star getting shredded by a black hole. Scientists used NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to capture the unfortunate sun getting torn apart ...read more

Scientists studied whether online contraceptives were as safe as those from a doctor. (Credit: Africa Studio/Shutterstock) Contraceptives are more accessible than ever. And online services are making it easier for women to purchase hormonal birth control without ever having to set foot in a doctor’s office. But nixing the clinic visit and ordering pills online might seem like an option that’s too good to be true. And not all is pristine in the world of telecontraceptives: in A ...read more

(Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems) In the science fiction novel and movie The Martian, a stranded astronaut survives more than 500 days on Mars by growing potatoes. A permanent human settlement on Mars would need to do much better. And according to a computer model created by planetary scientists, that’s actually an attainable goal. With the right food sources, we could grow a million-person population on Mars that doesn’t depend on food shipped from Earth in about a h ...read more

Whales, dolphins and other cetaceans underwent numerous physiological changes as they transitioned from the land to the sea. (Credit: Carl Buell, John Gatesy) Life began in the oceans, and for hundreds of millions of years, that's where it stayed. It took our deep ancestors eons to crawl, flop and gasp their way onto land. It turned out to be a pretty good decision, all told, as those creatures found a brand new world to inhabit. The ancient pioneers eventually led to mammals, including us &m ...read more

Two Late Bronze Age feeding vessels dated to around 1200– 800 BC. (Credit: Katharina Rebay-Salisbury) Ancient pottery is helping scientists learn how prehistoric parents fed their infants. A study of tiny clay pots with small spouts discovered at archaeological digs reveals that the vessels were likely used as milk bottles to feed babies. The specialized pots have long been found at sites around the world, and scientists have speculated that they may have been used to feed children ...read more

Earth's oceans are a powerful tool when it comes to mitigating climate change. a new report argues. (Credit: NASA) A future where climate change is taken seriously everywhere — where batteries trump fuel tanks and forests stay intact — is easy to picture. But for too long, ideas of a sustainable planet have focused on what we can do on land, and not planned for what the ocean could help accomplish. That’s the argument put forth by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable O ...read more

There are two ways to see the sun’s corona: Send up a spacecraft or wait for a total solar eclipse. On the left, the sun’s wispy atmosphere glows with ultraviolet light, captured by the European Space Agency’s PROBA2 satellite. Loops and arcs of plasma follow magnetic field lines coming from the sun. On the right, light scattering off particles in the corona becomes visible during the 2017 total solar eclipse that traversed the United States. (CREDIT: S.R. CRANMER AND A.R. WINE ...read more

A person's gait may help doctor's diagnose memory disorders like dementia and Alzheimer's. (Credit: Ljupco Smokovski/Shutterstock) Dementia takes many forms. Hallmark symptoms, like memory loss and disorientation can help doctors detect if a patient has some form of the disease. But to the naked eye, it can be difficult to distinguish between conditions like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia (LBD). That is, unless you look at the way someone walks. New research s ...read more