Pre-Sputnik Sky Photos Caught Mysterious Flashes. They Clustered Around Nuclear Tests.
Pre-Sputnik sky photos show mysterious flashes clustering around nuclear test dates. What exactly was up there before we started launching things?
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A Medieval Surgeon Tried to Save a Pregnant Woman. The Grave Tells Her Story.
A 1,300-year-old grave in Italy holds a woman who underwent a risky brain surgery and a baby that shares an unexpected place in the coffin.
Ancient Clay Jar Might Be a Battery. Or a Prayer Box. Possibly Both.
A 2,000-year-old clay jar. Copper, iron, a sealed chamber. New research says it could've powered something. Experts say it probably held a prayer. Could it have been doing both?
A Spider That Dressed Up as a Zombie. The Costume Is Working.
A new Amazon spider wears a zombie fungus costume so convincing a field researcher grabbed it before realizing it was alive. What is nature even doing?
Every Person Who Eats This Mushroom Sees Tiny People
A mushroom sold in Chinese markets sends hundreds to the hospital each year with Lilliputian hallucinations.
A Dead Galaxy Is Screaming Radio Signals Into Space. It Shouldn't Be.
A galaxy that stopped making stars billions of years ago is firing off intense radio bursts — and the leading explanation involves ancient stellar corpses finding each other in the dark.
Neighbors Turned Killers: The Chimpanzee Civil War
They shared food, groomed each other, patrolled the same forest. Then, without ideology or grievance, they started killing. What broke 200 chimps into enemies?
Lightning That Forgot Which Way Is Down
There's lightning that shoots upward toward space — and scientists are still piecing together how it works. What else is the sky hiding above the clouds?
The Amazon Has a River That Boils. No Volcano Required.
A river in the Amazon nearly reaches boiling point — with no volcano anywhere nearby. Scientists have a theory. They'll admit it's not quite an answer.
The Ocean Smells Like Life. A Planet 124 Light-Years Away Does Too.
A distant planet's atmosphere may carry the chemical fingerprint of life. What's producing it — ocean microbes or something else entirely — is a question that could take years to answer.
A Supermassive Black Hole Just Went Dark on a Human Timescale
The models said this would take thousands of years. A galaxy 10 billion light-years away apparently didn't get the memo — and now the whole framework is in question.
The World's Largest Spiderweb Has 111,000 Residents. They Shouldn't Be Sharing.
111,000 spiders. One cave. Two species that should be eating each other. What exactly convinced them to cooperate instead?
A Fungus at Chernobyl Is Eating the Radiation
A black fungus at Chernobyl grows toward radiation, not away from it. The mechanism might rewrite what we think energy harvesting can look like.
Space Broke Sperm's GPS
Sperm in microgravity can still swim. The problem is they've completely lost the plot. What that means for humanity's space ambitions is not a small question.
An Octopus Arm Can Navigate a Mate's Internal Organs and Deliver Sperm. The Rest of the Octopus Barely Notices.
Scientists just found that one octopus arm navigates in total darkness by tasting female hormones — and keeps working even after it's been cut off.