We owe a lot to the sun. Without it, we’d have no heat or light, of course. We’d also have no photosynthesis, and thus no oxygen, without which, neither we nor Earth’s ozone layer would exist. And yet, as a giant nuclear reactor, the sun insists on bombarding us with energy that, left unchecked, could burn all of us to a crisp. And the ozone layer has never been a foolproof filter when it comes to screening out harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays. Even in ancient times, before humans could gener ...read more

A parallel universe is a fun topic in physics, but it’s difficult to understand the concept. That’s why Paul Sutter, a theoretical cosmologist, award-winning science communicator, NASA advisor, U.S. Cultural Ambassador, and a globally recognized leader in the intersection of art and science, dives into this topic and helps us understand if parallel universes could help us search for extraterrestrial life. Hear from Sutter himself as we ask him this question: Are parallel universes possible a ...read more

April is Citizen Science Month which this year features the One Million Acts of Science Challenge, where participants from all over the world will try to make one million contributions to research projects that need their help. With thousands of citizen science projects that are active and available, things can get overwhelming. So SciStarter has taken the liberty of creating a Citizen Science Month interactive calendar with some great selections to get you started. Jump in, find a project and r ...read more

Astronomy is often called the world’s oldest science, and it’s likely humans have used their knowledge of the night sky to get from point A to point B since prehistoric times. But this ancient art predates us by far longer than that.Animals, too, follow the stars, and probably have as long as they've existed. In recent decades, researchers have discovered impressive navigation skills in various birds, in seals, even in a few insects — the latter of which have low-resolution compound eyes.� ...read more

As the threat of world war loomed in 1941, scientists considered how to best feed millions of American soldiers. What types of nutrients would they need? And how could foods be fortified with these nutrients and packaged into ready-to-eat meals?Before the decade was over, scientists had identified 13 vitamins essential to human nutrition. Food historian Mark Bittman writes in Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food from Sustainable to Suicidal how the 1940s ushered in “vitamania” and cons ...read more

Content Warning: Brief Mention of SuicideNo one knows the cause of this ailment. Currently, no lab results can conclusively test for it. There is no approved treatment — let alone any kind of cure — for this health problem.Some doctors actually refuse to believe that the condition exists. But those doctors are wrong. In fact, research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently estimates that more than 3 million Americans suffer from the problem.As medical mysteries g ...read more

As winter's brutal grip on the Arctic has begun to loosen, the vast region's sea ice cover likely reached its maximum extent for the year on March 14. That maximum spread of the ice was not as paltry as it has been in some recent years. But according to the latest analysis from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, it was still 247,000 square miles below the 1981 to 2010 average.That's an area of 'missing' ice nearly as large as Texas. For the record, NSIDC data show that the maximum extent of ...read more

Black licorice may look and taste like an innocent treat, but this candy has a dark side. On Sept. 23, 2020, doctors reported that black licorice was the culprit in the death of a 54-year-old man in Massachusetts. How could this be? Overdosing on licorice sounds more like a twisted tale than a plausible fact.I am a toxicologist and author of the book “Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are.” I have a long-standing interest in how chemicals in food an ...read more

The brain is one of the most complex structures ever to exist. But, what if brains could be made better? What if they could be faster, able to solve more complex problems, and linked directly to the vast network of information we have available via the Internet? That's the lofty aim of the team at Neuralink. Elon Musk, who founded the firm in 2016, said the company's ultimate goal is to achieve a state of “symbiosis” with artificial intelligence. Neuralink still has a long way to go to meet ...read more

In the U.S., wildland firefighters are able to stop about 98% of all wildfires before the fires have burned even 100 acres. That may seem comforting, but decades of quickly suppressing fires has had unintended consequences.Fires are a natural part of many landscapes globally. When forests aren’t allowed to burn, they become more dense, and dead branches, leaves and other biomass accumulate, leaving more fuel for the next fire. This buildup leads to more extreme fires that are even harder to pu ...read more