Humans, we’re not good with time. Let me qualify that: we’re good with short time, like how long until lunch or how long ago did the Mets win the World Series. Usually, if something happened within your lifetime, the conceptualization of that duration of time isn’t too bad. Even when you get older and it seems like 1995 wasn’t 30 years ago, you still can wrap your head around the fact that idea.Dive Back in TimeWhen time gets longer, things get harder. What was happening in your home tow ...read more

Nature has some peculiar ways of creating molecules. Many molecules, such as DNA, proteins, and sugars, have a property called chirality. Basically, chiral molecules are molecules that are shaped such that they can’t be superimposed on their mirror image.Scientists refer to this property as “handedness,” and it’s a great analogy for helping the rest of us understand chirality. If you put your right hand on top of your left hand, both hands palm down, they don’t match up. No matter how ...read more

Although food nourishes us and provides fuel for our bodies, it is also strongly associated with mood and emotion. What we eat and how we eat can impact how we feel — and conversely, certain feelings, good or bad, can motivate our food choices. Our relationship with food can be complicated as certain foods and emotions surrounding them can have stigmas, which may, in turn, lead to disordered eating. However, understanding our moods and how food and society can impact us is a step towards a he ...read more

Rising water temperatures, acidification, and deoxygenation are disrupting marine ecosystems worldwide. These changes threaten culturally and economically significant species, ultimately endangering the livelihoods that depend on them. To manage marine species struggling with climate change, it is essential to identify the most vulnerable ecosystems and species.A study conducted by the University of California, Santa Cruz, aims to help Californian fisheries adapt by developing climate-ready mana ...read more

The finale of a star’s life has enthralled scientists for years, yet questions continue to surround the explosions of white dwarf stars — the most common path that stars take during the later stages of their evolution. New research, however, has shed light on the astounding variety of ways that a white dwarf star can explode, capturing almost 4,000 of these events scattered across the distant universe. The explosions were detailed in a dataset and a collection of 21 associated studies publi ...read more

What are the odds of humanity emerging, well, anywhere? Conventional wisdom says that our emergence, evolution, and development on Earth were extremely improbable. But a new model says that humans gaining a foothold here wasn’t that difficult — and it’s not outside the realm of possibility that intelligent life could develop elsewhere in the universe, according to a paper in Science Advances.“This is a significant shift in how we think about the history of life,” Jennifer Macalady, a P ...read more

Hawaii is home to some of the world’s most beautiful landscapes. Striking blue waters, lush jungles, and pristine beaches make it a paradise. It’s also home to other unique inhabitants, such as sea turtles, dolphins, and… plastics? According to a new study from the University of Hawai‘i (UH) at Mānoa, plastics are becoming the most prevalent form of pollution in the ocean, which can be detrimental to marine species and their habitat. However, researchers from UH discovered a fungus fro ...read more

Romance is in the air today — and also predicted to be in space tonight. The conditions are perfect for a Valentine’s Day date with the aurora borealis on February 14, 2025. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says a solar wind stream is heading toward Earth just in time for the star-crossed lovers to gaze upon it together.Northern Lights CreationAuroras occur when electrons from space enter Earth’s magnetic field and collide with atoms and molecules in the upper atm ...read more

The world’s biggest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), sits in a circular tunnel about one hundred meters beneath the Swiss French border near Geneva. It is huge—some 17 kilometers in circumference—and capable of accelerating sub-atomic particles to energies of 10^12 electronVolts (Tera eV or TeV), the highest ever achieved. Constructed in the 1990s and switched on in the noughties, the LHC is getting old and physicists now want to smash particles together at even highe ...read more

Ancient peoples didn't have the luxury of air-tight containers to keep insects out of food, screens to keep insects out of the house, or a local pest control specialist that could help keep your home pest-free. These menacing pests could cause much more than an inconvenience. They could spoil food stores or ruin crops. However, archeologists have found that ancient people had their own ways of coping with bugs, rodents, and other annoyances. Ancient people weren't about to let these pests ruin ...read more