Life on Mars: One of the scientists spies on a new commercial drilling site in Season 2. (Credit: National Geographic/Richard Donnelly) Mars the planet is a unique world: a little like Earth, a little like the Moon, but entirely a world unto itself. Mars the television show is similarly one of a kind, an unusual amalgam of scripted science fiction and serious science documentary. The fictional part of the story begins in 2033, when the spacecraft Daedalus lands on the Red Planet to establish t ...read more

Fast-moving monopoles likewise pump out this light, and so do the comparatively massive, slowpoke monopoles — but for a different reason. These monopoles, borne of the early Grand Unified era of the Big Bang when three of the fundamental forces were joined as one, would possess a vestige of the extreme energy density where the differences between Standard Model particles and forces disappear. “The Grand Unified monopole contains in its tiny heart a little bit of the Big Bang, when al ...read more

The richest countries use as much as 16 times more antibiotics, like Amoxicillin, than poor countries. (Credit: PureRadiancePhoto) The World Health Organization (WHO) released a new report Monday that finds large disparities in antibiotic consumption worldwide. Consumption rates documented in the report vary by as much as 16 times between countries. The discovery suggests some countries are likely overprescribing whereas others may not have appropriate access to the medicines. “Overuse a ...read more

The Milky Way is shown on a collision course with a smaller galaxy in this simulation. (Credit: Koppelman, Villalobos; Helmi, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, The Netherlands) There’s a “dark matter hurricane” blowing through our corner of the Milky Way galaxy. Right this second, it’s passing over Earth. And this fast-moving stream could reveal major details about dark matter, a new study finds. The dark matter is traveling in what is known as th ...read more

A researcher makes the case that all infectious diseases are seasonal. (Credit: Dirima/Shutterstock.com) (Inside Science) — During the height of the polio epidemic in the U.S. in the 1940s and ’50s, parents often kept their children away from swimming pools, concerned that the disease, which peaked in the summer, was frequently spread through the water. But this fear couldn’t account for the summertime outbreaks around the world where public pools were not as common. Then in ...read more

Our planet teems with life. But are we a fluke, or an inevitability? Credit: ESA Humans have often looked at the night sky and wondered if there’s anyone else out there. But stare into that darkness long enough, and many wonder instead: how did we get here? What were the odds, in a universe so enormous and chaotic, that humans should have come to exist at all? Is life, let alone intelligent life, such a wildly improbable occurrence that we’re the only ones here? Or are we an i ...read more

SciStarter offers something for anyone who is curious or concerned about the natural world. In this edition, we highlight Fall projects the Girl Scouts are doing all across the nation. But anyone can participate in these projects! Girl Scouts USA and SciStarter have joined forces on the “Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey” featuring a handful of curated projects (some are listed below) aligned with the Outdoor STEM badges. Find dozens of other G ...read more