In my research focused on early farmers of Europe, I have often wondered about a curious pattern through time: Farmers lived in large, dense villages, then dispersed for centuries, then later formed cities again, only to abandon those as well. Why?Archaeologists often explain what we call urban collapse in terms of climate change, overpopulation, social pressures, or some combination of these. Each likely has been true at different points in time.But scientists have added a new hypothesis to the ...read more

A pair of recently uncovered brown dwarf twins, named Gliese 229ba and Gliese 229bb. Gliese 229b, discovered in 1995, was the first-ever confirmed brown dwarf, but until now astronomers thought they were observing a single body not two. New observations from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile revealed that the orb is two brown dwarfs tightly orbiting around each other every 12 days (as indicated by the orange and blue orbital lines), with a separation only 16 times ...read more

We’re told that we should eat the rainbow, choosing a diet filled with a colorful variety of fruits and vegetables. These nutrient-dense foods contain a range of vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals. But while we understand that phytochemicals keep us healthy, we might not understand why. Phytochemicals, also called phytonutrients, are substances found in fruits, vegetables, and grains that are part of a plant’s immune system, meant to keep it healthy and free of disease. And by keeping t ...read more

Earth is a pretty unique place. Thanks to its location in the habitable zone, life as we know it was able to grow and thrive on the planet. However, in our brief time exploring the surrounding cosmos for signs that we are not alone, we have consistently come up empty-handed. Astrobiologists are concerned with the origin and dispersion of life throughout the universe, and since Earth is the only place we know where life has emerged, the Blue Planet and its features have thus far guided our attem ...read more

Globally, it is estimated that around 10 percent of the world’s population has chronic kidney disease, or over 800 million people. Unfortunately, it is one of the leading causes of death. Many people may have the disease without realizing it so it is important to understand the disease, its progression, and risk factors. What Is Chronic Kidney Disease?(Credit: superbeststock/Shutterstock)Put simply, chronic kidney disease is when the kidneys have suffered damage over a sustained period of time ...read more

For us, galaxies are where most of the interesting stuff happens in the cosmos. Stars, planets, and black holes are all usually found inside these bustling cosmic neighborhoods. But space isn't just galaxies. In between galaxies are vast expanses of interstellar space — galactic deserts where you might be lucky to stumble across a few hydrogen atoms or, at best, a wandering rogue planet ejected from its home galaxy. So, where does a galaxy end and interstellar space begin? There seem to be a ...read more

The 21st century has opened in a very different way than science fiction writers of the 1960s might have imaged. Instead of a world that went all in on science as progress -- "better living through chemistry" and all -- we seem to be entering a century where even the facts, let alone the science, are in question. How did we get here? And what can we do?Facts and BeliefDistrust in science and facts has always been around. Whether it was the debate about evolution or the age of the Earth, when sci ...read more

While we may think that allergies are a common issue that humans have always dealt with, Western doctors may have only first diagnosed allergies in 1870.And for anything that goes back earlier in history, whether that is hay fever, food allergies, or asthma, the story gets murkier due to a lack of reliable records. In fact, some researchers think allergies may not have even existed in ancient times and were instead an unintended side effect of the overly sanitized industrial societies that some ...read more

A secret is an odd thing. You can’t see or touch it, and it doesn’t take up space in the physical world. Yet you can carry it around for years, decades even, until it “weighs you down” so palpably that you need to “get it off your chest.” Pretty heavy words for the ethereal contents of your mind.Michael Slepian, an associate professor at Columbia Business School and one of the world’s leading experts on secrecy, was first drawn to the subject via these metaphors. Were they mere fig ...read more

The moon is something all people on Earth, no matter where or when they’ve lived, have in common. Even modern city dwellers who rarely get a glimpse of the stars (outside a major power outage) can be struck silent with awe at the sudden appearance of the full moon over a nearby building or the reflection of the moon in a puddle of water.That we all share the moon does not mean that we imagine it the same way, however. In our myths and stories, the moon plays many different roles. The mythologi ...read more