Many runners know the feeling well — miles of training can feel sluggish and uninspiring. Then, on race day, the course is filled with other runners as well as spectators. The steps seem to come easier and faster. Scientists have long understood that people can perform better on certain tasks when others are watching. But after COVID-19 hit, spectators disappeared from sidelines and stadiums. When events resumed without fans, scientists had an opportunity to further study the relationship bet ...read more

The total solar eclipse set to occur April 8, 2024, will dazzle everyone who views it. However, potential observers might have some questions.Where exactly in Mexico and the U.S. will totality be visible? That’s easy to answer with a detailed map, such as the one below. But which locations are the best spots to view the event? That answer is less straightforward.You’ll surely want to set up shop near the center line of the eclipse, where totality will last the longest. But what else makes fo ...read more

Vitamin and mineral supplements can be helpful for people who don’t get enough necessary micronutrients in their diets, says a 2018 position statement by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. This includes some people with chronic health conditions, people who have problems absorbing nutrients, older people, and pregnant people. And almost three-quarters of Americans take nutritional supplements, according to the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade organization representing supplement ...read more

After months of summer, the sea ice fringing Antarctica has shriveled to its annual minimum. And for the third year running, scientists are shocked by just how much ice has gone missing.The annual minimum likely occurred on Feb. 20, tying with 2022 for second lowest in the 46-year satellite record, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The all-time record low occurred last year.This year’s minimum is 328,000 square miles below the 1981 to 2010 average summer minimum extent in Ant ...read more

Giant hornets, Burmese pythons and, perhaps less obviously, fig buttercups all pose threats to North American ecosystems. (Images public domain, via Flickr Creative Commons. Python: NPS, R. Cammauf; Giant Hornet: USDA, Lance Cheung; Fig Buttercup: John K. Thorne)Burmese Pythons! Northern Giant Hornets! Fig Buttercups! Okay, not all invasive species sound frightening. But all of them destabilize ecosystems, threaten native species, and/or spread pathogens. That’s why, in honor of Invasive Speci ...read more

Do you ever feel spacey, distracted and worn down toward the end of a long work-related task – especially if that task is entirely a mental one? For over a century, psychologists have been trying to determine whether mental fatigue is fundamentally similar to physical fatigue or whether it is governed by different processes.Some researchers have argued that exerting mental effort depletes a limited supply of energy – the same way physical exertion fatigues muscles. The brain consumes energy ...read more

Orcas know there is strength in numbers. The whales typically hunt in packs and ambush larger prey like seals, other whales, and sea lions. But, in an odd case, researchers have recently observed orcas hunting alone — and attacking the apex predator, the great white shark.An orca could attack great white sharks for their liver, which is rich in fats, as explained in a press release by Alison Towner, marine biologist and study author. Researchers have seen killer whales attack sharks before in ...read more

In January 2024, the tidy work of a Welsh mouse, caught on video cleaning the work bench inside a man’s shed, went viral.Night after night the mouse gathered up clothespins, corks, and other miscellaneous objects, stashing them inside a rectangular wooden box for safekeeping. Each time the man laid the items back out, the mouse had cleaned them up again by the following morning.While people across the world found the video adorable, many also asked the question: Why did the mouse keep doing th ...read more

Just over five years ago, on 22 February 2019, an unmanned space probe was placed in orbit around the Moon. Named Beresheet and built by SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries, it was intended to be the first private spacecraft to perform a soft landing. Among the probe’s payload were tardigrades, renowed for their ability to survive in even the harshest climates. The mission ran into trouble from the start, with the failure of “star tracker” cameras intended to determine the spacecraft� ...read more

For a brief moment in February, the world collectively held its breath upon discovering the plight of an orca pod trapped in sea ice. The frantic scene unfolded near the town of Rausu, off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost prefecture. According to Japanese media organization NHK, a local fisherman first contacted the town’s Coast Guard station on the morning of Feb. 6, 2024 to report an orca stuck between sheets of ice. Footage from later that afternoon revealed more orcas — abo ...read more