(Credit: Karpova/Shutterstock) Tobacco kills hundreds of thousands of people each year. But the addictive substance has a complex history — for many Native Americans, tobacco has been used ritually for hundreds of years. Now, researchers show Native Americans of the northwest were smoking tobacco more than 1,000 years before European fur-traders arrived with their own domesticated variety. The discovery could bolster public health campaigns in Native populations the researchers say. ...read more

Mummified cats may have been concealed behind walls to protect against witchcraft. (Credit: Trustees of the British Museum. Howard; Man, Volume 51, November 1951) Looking for authentic Halloween decorations this year? I’ve done some research and have three historically-accurate recommendations: You could cut up an old boot, mummify a cat or fill a bottle with nails and urine. They’re no pumpkins, but the goal of these sometimes macabre items was less about bringing the spook than k ...read more

Triton, Neptune’s largest moon, has frost that travels seasonally northward from its south pole, new observations confirm. (Credit: NASA/JPL) Neptune’s largest moon Triton is still gathering frost on its surface – even after nearly 20 years of accumulation. Backed by new observations, researchers recently announced that frost continues to travel northward from the southern polar cap of Triton. The frost, which is generated by the sun heating and sublimating volatile material ...read more

Millennia before chocolate fountains (above) were mainstays at wedding receptions, the cacao-derived ingredient was important to people living in Central and South America. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons) It’s time to rewrite the history of chocolate. Using both archaeological and genomic data, researchers have revealed that consumption of the now globally-loved ingredient started much earlier than thought — and has a different birthplace than many assumed. Chocolate is a ...read more

Scientists are debating landing sites for NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, which will look for signs of life on the Red Planet. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) Battle lines are being drawn on the Red Planet. Last week, more than 200 scientists from around the globe gathered in Los Angeles to debate the best place to send NASA’s Mars 2020 rover. The choice of landing site will steer the direction of Mars research for the next several decades. Similar in design to Curiosity, the as-yet-unnamed rov ...read more

Saturn’s Moon Dione. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute) Saturn’s moon Dione appears to be getting its tiger on. The world is decorated with long, bright stripes, according to a new study, something astronomers say is unlike anything else they’ve seen in the solar system. After first noticing these stripes, researchers from the Planetary Science Institute and the Smithsonian began trying to figure out where they came from and why they exist. Unusual L ...read more

(Credit: Jens Beste/Shutterstock) To step outside on a moonlit night is to see the darkness pushed back. The reflected sunlight from our natural satellite during a nearly full moon is enough to limn the nighttime landscape in silver and allow even human eyes to penetrate the gloom. But we can always do better, right? If one moon is good, surely two is even better. One Chinese researcher thinks so, at least. Wu Chunfeng, head of the Tian Fu New Area Science Society ...read more

A new study found that men who hit the gym may give their kids a genetic head start. (Credit: 4 PM Production/Shutterstock) When most people think of pre-conception health, they think of women. But new research shows that men’s lifestyle choices may also play a significant role in having healthy kids. A new study published this week in the journal Diabetes suggests that men who exercise moderately before conception have healthier children and that the benefits last well in ...read more

John Chater tastes a pomegranate at a research field site in California. (Courtesy UC-Riverside) There’s a lot more to pomegranates than their reputation in the U.S. would suggest. The fruits are known for their bittersweet juice, hard seeds, and their exploding-puzzle-box configuration that can leave kitchens looking like crime scenes. Around the world, pomegranates take on many different forms. They can be sweeter, softer, or come in different flavors and colors: pink, yellow, or even ...read more

Copernicus Sentinel-2B image of Öræfajökull in Iceland, seen in 2017. ESA-Antti Lipponen. Over the past few days, news out of Iceland is that Öræfajökull, one of Iceland’s largest and most powerful volcanoes, is getting restless. The volcano is “accumulating magma” and an eruption was coming! It sounds bleak, doesn’t it? The volcano that produced the island’s largest known explosive eruption is showing signs that 291 years of relativ ...read more