Crewed space travel isn’t just an engineering feat. It’s a test of the endurance and resilience of the human body. In microgravity, astronauts' bodies undergo dramatic changes: muscles weaken, bones lose density, fluids shift, and vision can be affected. Beyond that, deep space exposes them to radiation, which can damage DNA and increase long-term health risks.As space agencies and private companies plan for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, understanding exactly how space travel impac ...read more

Sweetness may be contagious. A growing body of research has revealed that the type of people who have a sweet tooth may also have a sweet temperament.“According to the conceptual metaphor theory, metaphors such as ‘love is sweet’ may be more than just linguistic terms — they can build scaffolds to unconsciously guide our behavior,” says Michael Schaefer, a neuropsychologist at Medical School Berlin.A Sweet Tooth and Sweet TemperamentIn research published in 2012, Brian Meier, a psychol ...read more

Inbreeding or chlamydia? It’s an impossible situation. But it’s a situation that koalas are facing in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia, where low levels of genetic diversity are threatening one of the only chlamydia-free populations of koalas that’s left.According to a new analysis in Conservation Genetics, the koalas in the southwestern suburbs of Sydney are some of the only koalas in New South Wales that are still free of chlamydia, a contagious disease that’s devastated the other koal ...read more

With a singular, long, spiraled tusk, narwhals really are the unicorns of the sea. The tusk, which is actually an elongated tooth, is mainly found in males and can grow up to 10 feet long. Many researchers believe that narwhals use the tusks in mating displays, though due to limited field observation, there is still much to learn about narwhals. A new study published in Frontiers in Marine Science used drones to monitor narwhals in the wild. With this footage, researchers may have a better unde ...read more

Animated movies can be an entertaining way to learn fascinating facts about the animal kingdom. Pixar’s 2003 classic Finding Nemo introduced many children and adults to marine biology for the first time. Among other things, it highlighted the symbiotic relationship between clownfish and their sea anemone hosts — where the anemone’s sting protects the fish from predators, and in return, the fish help keep the anemone clean.A recent study has expanded our understanding of this partnership. R ...read more

While the connection between air pollution and lung disease could appear obvious, the link between breathing in toxins and suffering memory loss looks about as clear as a cloud of cigarette smoke.Scientists at Scripps Research Institute first identified how contaminants in smog, pesticides, and other airborne chemical can affect the brain. Now they have identified a way to potentially reverse those effects, they report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Learning About Memory ...read more

Polar bear cubs are incredibly cute — and amazingly elusive. Their mothers dig dens under the snow in remote areas. Protecting cubs is key to the species’ survival. Under half of all polar bear cubs make it to adulthood.To help understand the act of denning — essential to the species survival — a team of scientists for the first time combined satellite tracking collars on mother bears with remote cameras aimed at the bears’ snow lairs. They observed bears near Svalbard, a Norwegian arc ...read more

In 2025, Dry January got a boost from the Surgeon General: an advisory about alcohol’s role in cancer and a warning about the risks of drinking. “Alcohol consumption,” the report stated, “is the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States, after tobacco and obesity,” increasing the risk of cancer in at least seven sites: mouth, throat, larynx, esophagus, breast, liver, and colon.With the advisory drawing our attention to the issue, it’s a good time to take a look ...read more

Giant panda bears evolved away from other bear species about 20 million years ago. Though they have similar characteristics, like body shape and digestive system, they greatly differ in preferred diets. Most bear species will happily feast on meat, fish, and berries, while pandas tend to stick to bamboo. A new study published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science points out that pandas have evolved in specific ways to make eating bamboo easier, including a pseudo thumb for holding bamboo and flatt ...read more

One would think that astronauts’ living quarters in space need to be perfectly sterilized, but it turns out that creating a "dirtier" environment with more microbes from Earth may boost their health. New research has shown that the International Space Station (ISS) is overly sterile, and while this may not sound like an issue, it carries some surprising consequences; the sterile nature of the station has led to a low diversity of microbes, which could be what is causing astronauts to develop h ...read more