A review of the research on genetically engineered corn concludes that the benefits appear to outweigh the drawbacks. In a meta-analysis, where researchers synthesize the findings of many studies, researchers from the University of Pisa and the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies look at papers on genetically engineered (GE) corn from between 1996 and 2016. They were looking for research on crop yields, grain quality, impacts on other organisms and how well the corn degraded in fields af ...read more

Red wine colors your tongue, but your teeth may not mind a little juice of the vine. Sipping moderate—keyword, moderate—amounts of wine on a regular basis can be good for your colon, heart, immune system and mental health. Wine, after all, was at the core of the so-called “French paradox,” or the observation in 1980 that cardiovascular disease was far less prevalent among the French, despite their penchant for saturated fats, low activity levels and cigarettes. The outli ...read more

The truth is out there, but if it doesn’t come from “my side” who cares? In an era of “fake news” our relationship status with factual knowledge, and a shared reality has changed to “it’s complicated”. Democracies depend on informed populations, but objective truth has of late taken a back seat to partisanship. In an essay published in Cell Press Reviews, New York University psychologists Jay Van Bavel and Andrea Pereira attempt to demystify how p ...read more

Mr. Steven is expected to save SpaceX millions of dollars. Mr. Steven, by the way, is a giant boat with a net. Building and launching reliable rockets into space is a costly endeavor, and SpaceX has been hellbent on bringing those costs down since the rocket company...launched. Until recently, spent rockets could only be used once. But Elon Musk, CEO and founder of SpaceX, has proven rockets are reusable, and can coordinate a simultaneous landing. But the cost-cutting can go even further. ...read more

See this little guy? He's just emerged into the world, but the appropriately-named Dumbo octopus is already taking his first flaps. Resemblance to a certain flying elephant notwithstanding, Dumbo octopuses actually live far below the ocean's surface. They're some of the deepest-living octopuses, and are so rare that this is the first hatchling that was caught on camera. The "ears" are actually fins that help them to swan about the seafloor. Stretch Your Wings They belong to a sub-order ...read more

Ah, nothing beats the crispy crunch of a jellyfish chip. Wait, what? Forget "Lady Doritos," jellyfish chips are a future snack for the masses. It turns out that the swimming gelatinous invertebrates can be leached of water to leave behind a thin, crispy wafer. It tastes of sea salt, apparently. Crispy, Crunchy News of the delicacy first appeared last summer, when Mie Pedersen, a gastrophysicist from the University of Southern Denmark announced that she and her team had found a new way ...read more

We here at Seriously, Science? really respect roaches. Not only do rambling roaches require receivers to run 'round roadblocks, but recently, researchers reproduced resourceful running of roaches to rapidly reorient running robots by ramming right into restrictions rather than retarding and reorienting. Never mind, just watch these videos of cockroaches running into things. It will help you relax. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwI6FBiBUVw[/embed] [embed]https://www.youtube.com/wat ...read more

In this cruel world, it's impossible to navigate from cradle to grave without experiencing the bitter fruits of injustice. But bitter fruits, it turns out, are better shared. According to findings from a study published Monday in the journal JNeurosci, punishing the wrongdoer seems to be more rewarding than helping out the victim. The participants, 53 males (a bit skewed, I'd say), all played a two-player game designed to analyze how people perceive and respond to a thief. Each player — t ...read more

Today, Indonesia's Sinabung had its biggest blast in its nearly 5 years of eruptions. I reported on the initial reports of the blast and now we have some pretty stunning images from space on the eruption. It really captures the power of the blast and how the ash spread mainly to the north over Sumatra (rather than the west as predicted). Sinabung appears to have settled down since the explosion, but with this change of character, volcanologists will be looking for signs if this change will b ...read more

Scott and Mark Kelly are identical twin brothers. Though that alone does not make them unique, what does is the fact that they are also both astronauts. In order to take advantage of the Kellys’ unique situation, NASA scientists decided to conduct a detailed study on the twins, aimed at unraveling how nature versus nurture plays out in space. As part of NASA's Twins Study, researchers collected biological samples from each of the Kellys before sending Scott to the International Space ...read more