There isn't a corner of the globe where you can't find people living. Even in some of the most extreme environments on the planet, people manage to get by, largely thanks to the innovations of technology. It's easy to take these technological innovations — which have facilitated our dispersal throughout the world — for granted. In fact, common items like baskets, bags, pottery, and woven string were once considered innovative, even though they might seem humble compared to the technologies b ...read more

You may have seen it happen in the movies, or on TV: an astronaut swims their way through space to get from point A to point B. It may look a little fun, but unfortunately, humans can’t swim through space because there’s not enough stuff to swim through.What Is the Physics of Swimming?We can easily swim through water because water is dense enough to allow us to push back on it with our hands and get something for our effort. By conservation of momentum, when we push on the water, the water p ...read more

The last few years have brought a new autumn ritual. Starting in September, drug stores and supermarkets run promotions for flu shots and COVID-19 vaccines. Customers who get jabbed at the in-store pharmacy earn a $10 off coupon or maybe a gift card. Both vaccines can be given at once, and for some people, a Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccine might also be recommended.Is this the new vaccine normal for COVID-19? An annual shot along with others to protect against seasonal viruses?Some epi ...read more

Along the Equator in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the El Niño climate phenomenon has been coming on strong in recent weeks. You can see that strength in the image above, which shows how temperatures at the ocean surface vary from normal right now. El Niño's fingerprint is seen in that broad yellow, orange and red swath along the Equator, indicative of abnormally warm water. We're Now in Strong El Niño Territory"El Niño is currently chugging along, and forecasters expect it to continue for th ...read more

Decades after the late 1970s, the death of disco has officially hit Europe. That's because the governing body behind most of the continent has banned the sale of several types of plastic glitter, due to the dangers they pose to the environment and to human health. The ban, which went into place on Oct. 17, 2023, comes as part of a larger commitment by the European Commission to reduce the release of microplastics. So, what makes glitter such a terrible threat to ecosystems, and which sorts of gl ...read more

When parents arrive at a daycare at the end of the day, their human toddlers often race into their arms while joyfully screaming, “Mommy!” or “Daddy!” That’s how parents know their kids recognize them.Cats, on the other hand, can be much harder to read. Do they really know the difference between you and your neighbor? Do Cats Recognize Their Owners?(Credit: Anastasiya Tsiasemnikava/ Shutterstock)For many cat owners, the answer to this question is a big fat “duh! Of course, my cat kno ...read more

If you’re anywhere on the Internet, you’ve probably seen them around. They look like a hodgepodge of a guinea pig, beaver, and coconut, but far upsized. They surf on the backs of their parents but double as free cabs and pillows for the rest of the animal kingdom. They’re capybaras, of course, the largest rodents in the world.But even though they are rodents, we adore these creatures. What’s their secret?What Are Capybaras and Why Are They So Popular?(Credit: Henner Damke/Shutterstock)Sc ...read more

During the Eocene Epoch, between 56 and 34 million years ago, West Texas wasn’t the desert it is today. Rather, the ecosystem would have been made up of closed canopied tropical rainforests similar to what we might find in places like Costa Rica today. It was rainy and damp with humidity you could cut with a knife.Many of the fossils found in this part of the world are preserved in the serpentine rivers that meandered through the forests in a landscape dotted with volcanic highlands. It was a ...read more

Walking is perhaps one of the most difficult maneuvers a living creature can perform. And turkeys have highly evolved muscular and skeletal systems that support an efficient mode of locomotion: the trot.Standing still, a turkey is in a state of stable equilibrium. Its center of gravity rests directly over its feet, with its muscles anchored to its skeleton, directing the turkey’s weight down below. While the turkey requires a small amount of energy to remain in balance, this is an efficient, l ...read more

Paleontologists analyzed a 170 million-year-old set of fossils collected from a road project in France and found them to belong to a new, massive underwater predator that stands (or swims) as the oldest-known creature of its kind.A group of local paleontology enthusiasts 40 years ago collected the fossils from a road cutting near Metz in Lorraine, France, and donated them to the Natural History Museum in Luxembourg for safe keeping. The bones remained there until recently, when an international ...read more