(Credit: Nelson Charette Photo/Shutterstock) Was it a chance encounter when you met that special someone or was there some deeper reason for it? What about that strange dream last night—was that just the random ramblings of the synapses of your brain or did it reveal something deep about your unconscious? Perhaps the dream was trying to tell you something about your future. Perhaps not. Did the fact that a close relative developed a virulent form of cancer have profound meaning or was it ...read more

(Credit: Martin M303/Shutterstock) Scientists may have miscalculated the age of an olive branch that has served as a key piece of evidence in dating the Santorini eruption, according to a new study. The findings cast doubt on the accuracy of an analysis of the millennia-old branch, suggesting it may predate by several decades the natural disaster that fundamentally altered the political landscape of the Mediterranean and has been used to anchor much of the chronology of ancient history. As Oli ...read more

A close-up of Omega Centauri’s core shows some of the 10 million stars that lie within its borders. (Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team) Well, it looks like we’re going to have to look farther than we thought for intergalactic extraterrestrial life. Astronomers have long held out hope that Omega Centauri, a massive globular cluster just 16,000 light years away, harbors habitable exoplanets. Researchers estimate that 10 million densely packed stars lie within the cluster ...read more

Photo: flickr/artisrams [Note from the authors of “Seriously, Science?”: After nine years with Discover, we’ve been informed that this will be our last month blogging on this platform. Despite being (usually) objective scientists, we have a sentimental streak, and we have spent the last few days reminiscing about the crazy, and often funny, science we have highlighted. Therefore, we have assembled a month-long feast of our favorite science papers. Enj ...read more

The Parker Solar Probe will scream around the sun at more than 400,000 mph and get as close as 3.83 million miles before burning up. (Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory) In ancient Greek mythology, Icarus’ newly crafted wings made him exceedingly bold and confident. Overcome with ecstasy, he soared too close to the sun, melting his wings until he fell back to Earth. Are humans about to share a similar fate with the first probe to explore the sun, or will our inge ...read more

(Credit: Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock) If you’re over 60 and, by BMI standards, overweight, it might not be such a bad thing. But there’s a catch. If you also have a fat belly, you’re at risk for not only metabolic health issues, but also cognitive problems. That’s the conclusion of a study published this month in The British Journal of Nutrition. For years, scientists have seen a correlation between children who are overweight or obese and their performance on c ...read more

For 60 years, scientists have bred a group of foxes to be either tame, or aggressive. A new study into the animals’ genes hints at a genetic basis for behavior in both foxes, as well as dogs and humans. (Credit: Kingston Photography for the JAB Canid Education and Conservation Center) Over the course of more than a half-century, a Russian science experiment successfully bred the world’s first domesticated fox. Now, by sequencing the fox genome and comparing tame foxes with their wi ...read more

(Credit: Researcher97/shutterstock) The same recent evolutionary changes that make humans prone to bad backs and impacted wisdom teeth may also tweak genes in ways that make people vulnerable to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other mental disorders, a new study finds. Scientists have long suspected that common ailments like lower back, knee and foot pain are likely due to the evolution of upright walking in the human family tree. And there may be a connection between the fact that 70 perc ...read more

This illustration depicts the exoplanet WASP-121b, an ultra-hot Jupiter that sits so close to its host star that its dayside atmosphere is hot enough to boil iron.(Credit: Engine House VFX, At-Bristol Science Centre, University of Exeter) Scattered throughout the cosmos, astronomers are uncovering a strange new class of exoplanets too small to be stars, but too big to be planets. They’re called ultra-hot Jupiters. These incredibly hot gas giants sit much closer to their host stars than M ...read more

(Credit: Maxx-Studio/shutterstock) If you’re struggling with fertility, you might want to switch up your underwear. When it comes to sperm health, the boxers vs. briefs debate has delivered inconsistent results over the last few decades, leaving dads-to-be questioning their choice of undergarments. But the latest study, published on August 8 in the journal Human Reproduction, says that boxers are the way to go if you’re looking to conceive. The largest study of its kind shows that ...read more