For thousands of years, humans have been getting queasy on boats. People have long felt a rumbling in their stomachs and then braced themselves against the side of the ship in hopes the feeling might pass.Hippocrates wrote about motion sickness more than 2,000 years ago, and the word “nausea” stems from the Greek word naus, meaning “ship.”Scientists now understand what causes motion sickness and how it can be prevented. And studies find it’s something almost everyone will have to e ...read more

After a journey of seven years and nearly 4 billion miles, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft landed gently in the Utah desert on the morning of Sept. 24, 2023, with a precious payload. The spacecraft brought back a sample from the asteroid Bennu.(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center via AP) OSIRIS-REx collected a sample from the asteroid Bennu. Roughly half a pound of material collected from the 85 million-ton asteroid (77.6 billion kg) will help scientists learn about the formation of the sola ...read more

We can’t know what Nimbadon looked like for sure, but the fossil record provides us some clues. It shows us that it was likely a curious-looking creature. Weighing in at a whopping 150 pounds, Nimbadon was about five times as large as a koala, a sloth-like figure with oversized claws, sizable hands and feet, and strong arms meant for clinging to the canopy.The species was a type of diprotodontoids to which wombats and koalas are closely related. The similarities between koalas and Nimbado ...read more

Earth is home to more than 7,000 languages, and we use those languages to express ideas as straightforward as the desire for a cup of coffee and as intricate as the details of quantum physics. But how did language start and when did humans first evolve this ability to use language?When Did Humans Develop Language? The development of human language has long fascinated scholars and linguists. These experts have various perspectives and theories for when humans started speaking and the reasons lang ...read more

Soaring with the birds. Teeth falling out. A crazy psychopath is chasing you. For many of us, our dreams transport us to a surreal world where logic and reason have no reign. Some of us may even look forward to sleep — and the adventures we’ll go on in our dreams. What is it about people who don’t remember their dreams that set them apart from the people who do? Is it possible for the brain to stop producing dreams? And could something be wrong in the brains of people who report never dr ...read more

When Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto in 2015, planetary geologists expected a few dull images of a cold, dark icy body on the edge of the Solar System. But Pluto surprised everyone.What astronomers discovered was a complex dwarf planet with a surprisingly varied landscape potted with huge cliffs, deep ravines, enormous mountains all battered by a curious kind of weather with evidence of water plus much more. There is even some evidence of volcanoes on Pluto. These are unlike tho ...read more

Say you’re out walking late at night, and you come across a pair of glowing dots in the distance. Maybe they’ll blink at you, or they’ll just watch quietly. Don’t get too spooked – that’s just an animal looking back at you.It may certainly feel creepy but rest assured that there are no ghostly forces behind those uncanny lights. The reason behind this phenomenon is much simpler: It’s the result of evolutionary mechanisms which allow certain species to see better in the dark.Why Do ...read more

The leaves are changing, a chilly autumn wind is blowing and front porches host bright orange pumpkins. As Halloween or All Hallow's Eve — whichever you prefer — draws near, the pumpkin starts to show itself everywhere. But have you ever wondered why? Take a look at the lore behind Jack-O-Lanterns, the health benefits of pumpkins and how some farmers can grow these massive gourds.Where Did Jack-o'-Lanterns Originate?(Credit:Stock Holm/Shutterstock)Jack-o'-Lanterns get their roots from an I ...read more

For centuries, a beached whale provided coastal dwellers with a windfall of resources. People harvested the baleen, blubber, bone, meat, oil, and spermaceti. They used oil and spermaceti to fuel candles and lanterns. They consumed whale meat. And they repurposed bone and baleen (a plate in the upper jaw) to structure corsets, collars, and hoop skirts. Around 1710, people wanted a steady supply of whale-based products. The commercial whaling industry developed in response to the increasing dem ...read more

While ubiquitous now in some of our favorite true crime shows, the technique of using DNA samples to identify potential criminals started making its way into the forensic world by chance — and still is not as popular or helpful as one might think.Who Invented DNA Profiling?The method for DNA profiling as we know it today is largely attributed to Sir Alec Jeffreys, a British geneticist. Jeffreys' groundbreaking work led to real-world applications, from immigration disputes to solving heinous cr ...read more