Whether we’re apartment hunting or planning our next getaway, the amount and quality of nearby nature often plays a big role. Surrounding ourselves with greenery isn’t just about aesthetics — it’s good for our minds. Time spent in green spaces can reduce stress, sharpen our focus, and boost creativity, all while lifting our mood. But the perks don’t stop there. Green spaces can also improve air quality and lower noise pollution — real benefits, especially in urban environments.Unfort ...read more

In July 2024, scientists in Otago, New Zealand, made a stunning discovery: an elusive spade-toothed beaked whale had washed up on the shore. The whale had never been seen in the wild, and finding a recently deceased adult male meant that, for the first time, scientists could examine the species — an animal around the size of an oversized dolphin that had successfully evaded humans for much of human history.Alexander Werth, a biologist at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, received a call from ...read more

Many adults can remember the days when their screen time was limited to Saturday morning cartoons, as well as their class’s weekly visit to the computer lab to play Oregon Trail. It was a quick half-hour of fatigued oxen, snakebites, and surprise bouts of dysentery.Over the past few decades, screen time has expanded from an occasional treat to a full-day affair. People of all ages stare at screens for work, school, and entertainment. Within the last two decades, scientists have increasingly st ...read more

Although volcanic eruptions can strike when least expected, they sometimes give off warning signs that can be captured by advanced technology. One innovative way to monitor eruptions is now being put to the test at the Reykjanes Peninsula, a hotbed of volcanic activity in Iceland. In a new study, researchers have reported the successful progress of an eruption warning system that uses distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), which can anticipate volcanic activity through magma movements beneath the s ...read more

Instead of targeted, aggressive attacks, sharks may bite humans out of self-defense. Within the media, sharks are often seen as bloodthirsty predators. However, shark attacks are rare and, for the most part, not fatal. Researchers explain how sharks bite for a number of reasons, including being territorial, deterring competition, and, of course, for predation. And now, researchers are looking at self-defense against humans as another possible reason, according to new research published in Front ...read more

Researchers developed a polymer-based therapy that can be injected following a heart attack that helps heart tissue heal. After administering it to rats, they demonstrated that it works up to five weeks later, they reported in the journal Advanced Materials.Heart attacks are a major health issue in the U.S., with about 805,000 people a year experiencing them — the equivalent of one every 40 seconds. About 12 percent of people who experience a heart attack will die from it.“Preventing heart f ...read more

It sounds like a setup for a horror movie: a meat-eating, cannibalistic caterpillar hiding in the shadows of a spiderweb and dressed in the remains of its former prey. But this incredible species, dubbed the “bone collector” and previously unknown to biologists, is real and living in a small section of forest on the Hawai'ian island of O’ahu.For the research team from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, this extremely rare discovery was 20 years in the making and shocked everyone involv ...read more

During the Apollo missions, astronauts faced challenges from sharp, fine particles of lunar dust that clung to nearly everything, posing potential health risks while causing instrument malfunctions and allergy-like symptoms. As the space sector prepares for future Mars missions, astronauts and researchers are investigating how Mars dust may impact astronauts and their equipment. Mars, the Toxic Beach Justin Wang, a medical student at the University of Southern California, has a background in p ...read more

There’s a lot that goes on inside our brains. But there are times that our minds go… well… what’s the word? Blank? Reviewing available research on mind blanking, a new article in Trends in Cognitive Sciences says that the moments in which we are “thinking about nothing” are actually a lot more complex than we might think, as they tend to correspond with physiological, neural, and cognitive changes in our brains and bodies. Taken as a whole, the new article suggests that the blanking ...read more

Meteorites carry clues that are pivotal in exploring the history of our Solar System, yet they don’t all look the same after impact. Colliding with a planetary surface sends shockwaves through meteorites, changing their configuration in various ways. Scientists noticed, though, that meteorites containing carbon often appear as if they experienced less intense impacts and look less “shocked” than meteorites without carbon. A new study has discovered that this is because evidence from these ...read more