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While Americans are more likely to vote for a gay candidate than an atheist, there has been an uptick in the percentage of those who say that their presidential choice’s faith plays no role in their decision — about six out of 10 Americans currently take that view.

Male war heroes are more likely to snag a date than their female counterparts. It seems warrior-women don’t meet with our primate brain’s idea of attractive, according to researchers.

The most powerful telescope in history will never see the farthest galaxy. “No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded […]

Is it possible that our problems indicate a flaw in the theory of gravity? “I soon became convinced… that all the theorizing would be empty brain exercise and therefore a […]

Saw “Solar System Questions” by xkcd? Here’s what science thinks it knows. “Put two ships in the open sea, without wind or tide, and, at last, they will come together. […]

Could everything we’ve put together about science turn out to be wrong? “Revolutions are something you see only in retrospect.” –Alan Greenspan We’re always on the lookout for the next […]

Catch MIT scientist Sara Seager take you to the cutting edge and into the future, with a live blog (plus commentary) right here! “Hundreds or thousands of years from now, […]

Without this one piece of the puzzle, everything we know falls apart. “Is no one inspired by our present picture of the Universe? This value of science remains unsung by […]

These cosmic monsters make the LHC look like child’s play, and yet even they have their limits. “Energy is liberated matter, matter is energy waiting to happen.” –Bill Bryson You […]

Moral sciences are back. Natural laws of ethics, envisioned early in the Enlightenment, can now be objectively studied. Game Theory is reteaching scientists and “rationalists” old wisdoms, while suggesting a “Golden Punishment Rule,” and a Naturalistic Fallacy reform (via “negative telos”).

Can failed stars, or stellar corpses, give light to the Universe once again? “A single tiny light creates a space where darkness cannot exist. The light vanquishes the darkness. Try […]

Why “letting there be light” in the Universe isn’t enough. “Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” –Marcus Aurelius I want you […]

The future of stars like our own, in a story only pictures can tell. “I lie on the floor, washed by nothing and hanging on. I cry at night. I […]

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of iconic anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, a group of fans wants to recreate the fate of series’ Spear Of Longinus, which ends up on the moon.

Economics and fiction both seek to describe and explain human nature. Measured against what makes fiction feel realistic, the tales of mainstream economists don’t ring true. Yet they govern us.

The story of our neck of the woods, on the most cosmic of all scales. “We live in a world that has narrowed into a neighborhood before it has broadened […]

This International Women’s Day, celebrate Henrietta Leavitt, who took us beyond the stars and into the galaxies. “Her will tells nearly all. She left an estate worth $314.91, mostly in […]

Whether you loved the original series or never saw it, it changed our world. “An ancestor of mine maintained that when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must […]

It’s the greatest source of energy in the Universe, and yet we had no idea until less than 100 years ago. “The sun is a miasmaOf incandescent plasmaThe sun’s not […]

Sure, they wiped out the dinosaurs, but do they really pose a risk to humans? “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind […]

If they’re so massive that not even light can escape, how can we see them? “According to the special theory of relativity nothing can travel faster than light, so that […]

Romance and reason are becoming estranged bedfellows (too bad—they were a cute couple). Does love’s logic now add up? Or is love like “happiness,” a low-resolution word (unhelpful in seeing key distinctions). Food for thought on love’s unrequited logic…

What makes the Sun shine? For decades, the science didn’t add up. “Every time we get slapped down, we can say, ‘Thank you, Mother Nature,’ because it means we’re about […]

How many does it take to give us our Universe, and what’s left unexplained? “The joy of life consists in the exercise of one’s energies, continual growth, constant change, the […]

In the United States, the FDA has the power to fine drug companies $10,000 a day for failing to publish clinical trials, yet most clinical trials still never see the light of day.

Encounters in the fourth dimension. We all have an intuitive sense of what a dimension is. There are only three perpendicular directions in which we might move, which we might […]

How our own minds work is hard to see. As with almost everything else our views are shaped by the ideas our culture uses. Here are some once-tempting views about why we do what we know we will rue (tales of sin, vice and bad decisions).

After the CMB, before the first stars, there was nothing to see. Or was there? “[I]f there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we […]

Understanding how science uses certain key concepts can make the difference between parroting pure speculation and taking an evidence-based approach.

Spin a roulette wheel a million times, and you’ll see a fairly even split between black and red. But spin it a few dozen times, and there might be “streaks” of one or the other. The gambler’s fallacy leads bettors to believe that they odds are better if they bet against the streak. But the wheel has no memory of previous spins; for each round, leaving aside those pesky green zeroes, the odds for each color are always going to be 50-50.