When people think about evolution and human beings, the assumption is often made that we have stopped evolving. Once upon a time, we had to evade predators, compete with other hominid species and fight off disease. And thanks to modern society, agriculture, medicine, and technology, we've largely alleviated these physical selection pressures on our species.   Are Humans Still Evolving? Perhaps we haven't stopped after all. Broadly speaking, evolution simply means the gradual change in the gene ...read more

NASA recently announced the discovery of a new, Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of a nearby star called TOI-700. We are two of the astronomers who led the discovery of this planet, called TOI-700 e. TOI-700 e is just over 100 light years from Earth – too far away for humans to visit – but we do know that it is similar in size to the Earth, likely rocky in composition and could potentially support life. You've probably heard about some of the many other exoplanet discoveries� ...read more

During the 1992 NBA Championship finals, Michael Jordan hit six 3-pointers in 18 minutes then turned to the crowd with an iconic shrug. Later, he said he was so “in the zone” he literally didn’t know how he did it. He was talking about, of course, that thrilling feeling of flow. A term coined by the late positive psychology expert Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, flow is the state of being hyper-focused, fully absorbed and energized by the task at hand. “Flow is the feeling of being immersed ...read more

In 1846, a Japanese policeman drew a legendary mermaid with scales like a coat of mail and flowing hair that ran all the way down to three mer-fins. He’d come across the creature while investigating a report of a greenish glow in the water and had listened as the fish-person forecasted a good harvest and added, almost as an aside: “Should an epidemic come,” the beaked Amabie said, “draw me and show me to the people.” An early Japanese newspaper re-printed the drawing using wooden block ...read more

St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, is best known for bringing Christianity to the Emerald Isle, but his story is chock-full of other legends and miracles, too. It’s been said that the missionary raised dozens of people from the dead, for example, and even banished all of Ireland’s snakes into the sea following a 40-day fast. Unfortunately, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the science doesn’t quite back up this latter claim. While it’s true that the Irish don’t have any snakes to deal wit ...read more

Yes, sound can definitely produce heat. But you can’t cook food from yelling at it (sorry Gordon Ramsey). What we call sound is really a patterned, regular, ordered movement of individual particles. When we speak to each other, we force air through the small opening of our throat and shape it with our mouths. This makes the air molecules bunch together in specific patterns on their way out. Those air molecules then expand again, pushing against their neighbors, which makes them contract, and s ...read more

I was standing in line for a tourist attraction in Tokyo when a small robot began addressing the crowd. The robot resembled Rosey from The Jetsons and was meant to amuse people while they waited. It babbled for a while, and then its eyes turned into two pink hearts. “I love everyone,” it announced. “Oh, really?” I responded sarcastically. I couldn’t help myself. “Everyone? That’s disingenuous.” The Tokyo robot was one of many robots and other forms of artificial intelligence (A ...read more

On Aug. 3, 2019, only hours after a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, which left 23 people dead, a familiar talking point reared its head: video games were to blame. The question of whether video games incite real-world violence among kids and teens has been sparking controversy — and headlines — for decades. But despite more than 20 years of investigation, researchers have failed to prove a causal link between playing violent video games and committing acts of violence. What's more, a longit ...read more

One of the great scientific projects of our time is the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence or SETI — the hunt for evidence of technologically advanced civilizations elsewhere in the galaxy. The current manifestation of this endeavor is the Breakthrough Listen Initiative, which uses radio telescopes to look for signals that cannot have a terrestrial origin. The big challenge in this effort is combing through massive data sets — hundreds of hours of data at multiple frequencies. Research ...read more

What’s the most impressive fossil you ever saw? For most people — those who aren’t paleontologists — the answer would probably veer towards the A-list of ancient creatures: dinosaurs, pterosaurs and other long-extinct megafauna whose size and majesty have made them the showpieces of museums and the inspiration of film franchises for decades. But what if someone told you that you’ve been overlooking the real rock stars of the fossil record for all these years? What if there was a type o ...read more