Everyone who has ever seen Saturn through a telescope is astonished to see the system of rings that surround it. Those rings are rock and ice that span thousands of kilometers around the planet. They are the hallmark of Saturn, but ring systems exist around Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune as well, albeit in less dramatic forms.Yet, you shouldn't need to be a giant planet to have a ring. As long as debris accumulates in the gravitational well of a planet, the rotation will cause it to form a ring a d ...read more

For humans, living in a bubble is a figurative coping mechanism. For water anoles, it is a literal description of an underwater survival strategy. The semi-aquatic lizards found in Costa Rica’s forests sometimes escape attackers by breathing a bubble over their heads that act as a scuba helmet when they dive and swim to safety, according to a report in Biology Letters. Lindsey Swierk an assistant research professor of biological sciences at Binghamton University in New York, and an author of t ...read more

Mental illness of today was typically thought of as supernatural phenomenon in ancient times. People often thought that sorcery, demons, or gods were punishing a person for their sin, explains Andrew Scull, one of the world’s foremost scholars of the history of madness.Lacking a better understanding of its causes, mental illness — from melancholy to murderous rages — was blamed on gods and demons. There is no historical corroboration to understand this, yet there are stories that reflect ...read more

Dear reader, this article discusses eating, addiction, and other sensitive topics. Reader's discretion is advised. When a 2008 study reported that refined sugar could be addicting, it sparked a slew of buzzy headlines and the infamous claim that “sugar is as addicting as cocaine.” This has since created a certain stigma around sugar and led to shifts in diet culture. The claim itself is easy enough to believe. How often does someone only have one piece of candy? Or only indulge in one Oreo ...read more

Despite making its appearance only once every roughly 75 years, Halley’s Comet is perhaps one of the most famous objects in the night sky. It last passed by Earth in 1986, and both astronomers and skywatchers are eagerly anticipating its return in 2061. When Halley’s Comet reappears in Earth’s skies, it will likely be a spectacle that will yet again captivate much of the world — and potentially worry some. But, since we still have some time before Halley’s Comet returns, let’s dive i ...read more

Back in the 1970s, biologists began to observe a remarkable social phenomenon in bacteria. They had long been aware that individual bacteria could sense and seek out nutrients in their environment, a phenomenon known as chemotaxis. What they hadn’t realized was that bacteria could communicate between themselves using signaling molecules. In this way, bacteria can sense the presence of others and regulate their behavior accordingly, such as becoming bioluminescent or forming biofilms when their ...read more

The Higgs boson is special kind of particle that doesn’t really appear in everyday life. Instead, it subtly interacts with many other particles and is responsible for giving them mass. Additionally, it plays a crucial role in the determining the characteristics of the forces of nature.The Discovery of Higgs Boson CERN research center, Geneva Switzerland (Credit: Dominionart/Shutterstock)In 1964, several researchers, including British physicist Peter Higgs, found a clever solution to a troublin ...read more

How do you know when an Ice Age teen hits puberty? You can see it in their bones.A research group for the first time applied a technique initially developed for contemporary clinical observations to Paleolithic fossils. They reported in the Journal of Human Evolution that Ice Age teens experienced the same physiological changes as contemporary young adolescents at roughly the same time. Ice Age Bones Reveal Clues About AdolescenceThe scientists studied the bones of 13 ancient humans between 10 a ...read more

The Fermi paradox boils down to a simple question: where is everybody? In other words, if we’re not alone in the universe, then why haven’t we seen any evidence for aliens yet? To date, there is no consensus resolution to the Fermi Paradox…and we still have no evidence for aliens.Who Came Up With the Fermi Paradox?(Credit: Janusz Pienkowski/Shutterstock)Lore has it that in the summer of 1950, famed Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi was out to lunch one day with some friends and colle ...read more

If you live in southern California, then it would come as no surprise that the ground could start shaking at any time. That’s because this part of the country is prone to earthquakes.But it might come as a surprise that this isn’t the only part of the country where the ground could and has started shaking. Central Virginia and the Lowcountry of South Carolina, for example, have and could in the future be home to the next big earthquake.It's these unexpected hotspots that can inflict the most ...read more