Nice piece of tail: Galeamopus pabsti, the newest sauropod dinosaur in the books. (Credit Davide Bonadonna) The latest big’un of the dinosaur world, Galeamopus pabsti, makes its official debut to science today after hiding in plain sight. Paleontologists Emanuel Tschopp and Octávio Mateus, authors of the new study, contemplate G. pabsti‘s noggin in an artsy shot I rather like. (Credit Octávio Mateus) If you want to sum up the sauropods, the group of herbivorous dinosa ...read more

(Credit: Future Vectors/Shutterstock) Depression is challenging to manage, especially since many antidepressants can take weeks to work and simply fail for nearly one-third of sufferers. New research presented in April at the Psychedelic Science 2017 conference in Oakland, California, suggests psychedelic drugs can help people battling depression and other psychiatric disorders that defy conventional therapies. Brewing Up a Mood Boost Dráulio Barros de Araújo, a neuroscientist at ...read more

(Olga Kuevda/Shutterstock) Middle-agers and seniors on average sleep less than younger people, about 6 to 7 hours a night compared to 8 to 9 hours. But why is this so? And are older people therefore sleep deprived, which can give rise to chronic maladies and speed up aging? There are two camps on this. One is that older people sleep less because their body requires less sleep. No harm, no foul here. The other is that the hours spent sleeping isn’t the relevant question; what matters is t ...read more

Rats get a bum rap. Most of us find them repulsive, and we will actively persecute them if we find them in our living spaces. It’s no wonder–they harbor carriers of the plague. But, like most mammals, they are more similar to us than you might expect. Take this study, for example. Here, scientists wondered whether non-human mammals have orgasms. To answer this question, they began by coming up with a set of physiological responses associated with human orgasms. They then a ...read more

Scientists refer to the study of biological toxins as toxinology. From bacterial toxins like anthrax to the deadliest snake venoms, toxinology examines the chemical warfare between animals, plants, fungi and bacteria. In my Toxinology 101 series, I explain and explore the fundamentals of toxin science to reveal the unusual, often unfamiliar, and unnerving world created by our planet’s most notorious biochemists. One of the most frequent questions I receive as a venom s ...read more

High-resolution animation from GOES-16: massive thunderstorms over southern Illinois, part of a sprawling, dangerous weather system A screenshot from an animation of GOES-16 weather satellite images shows severe storms boiling up over southern Illinois, where they dumped heavy rainfall on April 28, 2017. Click to watch the animation. (Source: CIRA/RAMMB/NOAA) A large swath of the nation’s midsection has been hammered with torrential downpours. And the forecast calls for yet more, thanks t ...read more

The cure for false speech is more truth telling — not less speech. Here’s what 29 feet of sea level rise would look in New York City. (Source: Courtesy of Climate Central) In his first piece as an op ed columnist for the N.Y. Times, Bret Stephens rightly decries hyperbole in discussion about climate change. Then he makes seemingly reasonable arguments that turn out to be asinine. My reaction? Yawn. It’s quite doubtful that he will move the needle of public ...read more

The Harpy drone made by Israel Aerospace Industries can autonomously loiter in the air until it detects a radar target below. Credit: Israel Aerospace Industries Fears of a Terminator-style arms race have already prompted leading AI researchers and Silicon Valley leaders to call for a ban on killer robots. The United Nations plans to convene its first formal meeting of experts on lethal autonomous weapons later this summer. But a simulation based on the hypothetical first battlefield ...read more

A prototype of the Lilium Jet takes off on a vertical takeoff and landing test flight. Credit: Lilium The old science fiction fantasy of a flying car that both drives on the ground and flies in the air is unlikely to revolutionize daily commutes. Instead, Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs and aerospace companies dream of electric-powered aircraft that can take off vertically like helicopters but have the flight efficiency of airplanes. The German startup Lilium took a very ...read more