Thanks to human-caused warming, an area of ice three times the size of Texas went missing this year https://youtu.be/3aS-4JB88b4 Arctic sea ice shriveled so much during this summer's now-finished melt season that it has reached the second lowest extent on record. A sensitive indicator of human-caused warming, the low extent of the region's floating lid of ice effectively tied with 2007 and 2016 for second place in satellite records extending back 40 years, according to the National S ...read more

What's so great about hanging your head out of a car window? (Credit: Shutterstock) If happiness were a picture, there’s a pretty good chance it would be a dog with its head sticking out of a car window. It seems few pups can resist a breeze running through their fur and their ears flapping in the wind as their owner cruises into the sunset. And based on those wind-whipped grins, dogs seem to wholeheartedly enjoy this simple pleasure.  But you have to admit, seeing a dog zoo ...read more

A rendering of data from the study. The blue shading shows the estimated protocluster extent and the smaller boxes show images of the galaxies they observed in the protocluster. (Credit: NAOJ/Harikane et. al.) Galaxies and dark matter stretch throughout our universe as a vast cosmic web. They cluster together in some areas and leave empty voids in others. But how early in the universe's history the clusters began to form is still unknown. Now, researchers have found the most distant and ...read more

The newly discovered planet, named GJ 3512 b, is half the mass of Jupiter. Researchers think its tiny red dwarf host not only likely harbors an additional massive planet, but also ejected another in the past. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) Astronomers have discovered a gigantic planet orbiting a puny star some 30 light-years away. And according to current theories, the planet shouldn’t exist. Dubbed GJ 3512 b, the gas giant is at least half the mass of Jupiter. But it orbits a red dwarf sta ...read more

Leafcutter ants carry vegetation to their nests. The species farm fungi for sustenance. (Credit: Ivan Kuzmin/Shuttestock In 2017, a woman in Nevada died from a fairly common bacterial infection, Klebsiella pneumoniae. Her death wasn't the product of medical oversight or inattention; rather, it came despite it. Her infection proved resistant to every antibiotic drug doctors threw against it, NPR reports. They ultimately exhausted 26 different drugs — the bacteria was resistant to every s ...read more

(Credit: Alliance Images/Shutterstock) For many, stress is an all-too familiar emotion. It can come from daily challenges, like juggling work and child care, or major life events, like getting divorced or losing a loved one. We all experience this stress differently — some people can’t sleep, others stress eat, and still others develop debilitating anxiety. But our bodies may be responding to stress on a deeper level. Chronic stress and anxiety could disrupt how our cells produ ...read more

Tea bags made of plastic can release billions of microplastics into our bodies. (Credit: AnikonaAnn/Shutterstock) There’s a new trend in tea — out with the old, flat paper tea bags and in with the pyramid-shaped mesh bags that allow bigger leaves extra breathing room. The bags, which have been around since at least 2006, are sometimes called “silken” sachets. They can be made from hemp, corn-based plastics, nylon or PET (polyethylene terephthalate). But most often it&r ...read more

Working out too intensely for too long can cause our brains to become fatigued. (Credit: Flamingo Images/Shutterstock) For years, the National Institute of Sports, Exercise and Performance (INSEP) in France had been studying an unusual phenomenon. If an athlete’s workout regiments were ramped up, it didn’t always lead to a better performance — even if that athlete felt like they were working harder than before.  The organization called this phenomenon overreaching, a ...read more

This artist's illustration shows a black hole ripping a star into a thin stream of gas that then slams back into itself, causing a bright shock that astronomers detected earlier this year. (Credit: Illustration by Robin Dienel/Courtesy Carnegie Institution for Science) A NASA spacecraft built to find alien planets just spotted a star getting shredded by a black hole. Scientists used NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to capture the unfortunate sun getting torn apart ...read more

Scientists studied whether online contraceptives were as safe as those from a doctor. (Credit: Africa Studio/Shutterstock) Contraceptives are more accessible than ever. And online services are making it easier for women to purchase hormonal birth control without ever having to set foot in a doctor’s office. But nixing the clinic visit and ordering pills online might seem like an option that’s too good to be true. And not all is pristine in the world of telecontraceptives: in A ...read more