A Planet Swings By and Sets Its Star Glowing
Magnetic reconnection, 18 years of hidden data, and a planet that announces its position by setting its star aglow.
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A Star the Size of 1,500 Suns Went from Red to Yellow
WOH G64 shifted colors over a decade. The leading explanation is that the star may be approaching a supernova.
A Spider Wearing a Smiley Face Just Turned Up in the Himalayas
Two spiders, two continents, one inexplicable red grin, and scientists found this one while they were looking for ants. What else is up there?
No One Born Blind Has Ever Been Diagnosed With Schizophrenia
75 years of searching psychiatric wards worldwide, and researchers still can't find a single blind person with schizophrenia. What does a zero tell us about how the mind constructs reality?
Orcas Are Exploding Sunfish
Orcas in the Gulf of California are blowing up sunfish after killing them. Scientists suspect it is either a feeding technique for juveniles or a really good time.
A Nurse Shark Off Costa Rica Showed Up Looking Like a Traffic Cone
A nurse shark with glowing orange skin and white eyes turns up off Costa Rica, and somehow, being impossible to camouflage didn't stop it from thriving.
America's Deadliest Shipwreck Happened in a River. 20 Feet From the Dock.
The Titanic is legend. The Eastland killed more passengers and vanished from memory. The difference? Who was on board.
A Galaxy Did a Supersonic Cannonball. A Student in the Himalayas Caught the Glow.
A galaxy plowing through near-empty space fast enough to leave a glowing 1.8-million-light-year scar and a student in the Himalayas found it first.
The Sleeping Pandemic That Shadowed the Spanish Flu
A second pandemic shadowed the Spanish Flu, stranger, quieter, and just as deadly. A century of science still can't explain what it was or whether it could come back.
Star Breaking Death's Speed Limit
A binary star with a 72-minute orbit shouldn't exist. Our best models say so. What does it mean that we've now found ten?
The Whale That's Been Calling the Wrong Number for Decades
Other whales can hear it. Scientists confirmed that decades ago. So why has no whale ever answered? The mystery of 52 Blue goes deeper than you'd expect.
Humans Have a Third Set of Teeth. A New Drug Could Make Them Grow.
Your mouth has been keeping a secret: dormant tooth buds, a latent third set, held in reserve. A Japanese drug trial is asking whether they can finally be switched on.
Neanderthals Ate Bugs. Europeans Avoided Them for 9,000 Years.
Western bug aversion may be older than any cultural explanation. New research traces it to inherited biology going back 9,000 years. So is this really just a marketing problem?
The Baby Incubator Spent Decades as a Carnival Act Before Hospitals Would Touch It
The NICU as we know it didn't start in a hospital. It started on a Coney Island boardwalk, next to the roller coasters, funded by 25-cent tickets.
Alaska's Rivers Are Turning Orange, and the Ground Itself Is to Blame
Alaska's rivers aren't being polluted from outside. The ground is thawing open, and centuries of frozen chemistry are waking up. What happens next is unwritten.
This Fly Lands on a Deer, Rips Off Its Own Wings, and Dials Down Its Vision
A blood-feeding fly sheds its wings on landing, then halves its own visual output, and researchers are asking whether evolution can't, or just won't, finish the job.
Helium Leak Confirms Atmosphere on a Habitable-Zone Rocky Planet
Astronomers detected an atmosphere on a rocky, potentially habitable world beyond our solar system. The clue wasn't oxygen or water vapor. It was a gas leak.
Medieval Europe Put Pigs, Rats and Weevils on Trial. Cats Were Somehow Above the Law.
Medieval courts tried pigs, rats and weevils for actual crimes. Dogs faced charges regularly. Cats, despite ample provocation, were almost never touched.