Surprising Science
All Stories
Research suggests that your name affects the level of success you’ll achieve in your career and love life, and even where you choose to live.
Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital have completed the most complex penis transplant to date, marking the third-ever successful operation of its kind.
What do luck, death, and Texas have in common? They’re all part of our weekly random fact roundup.
The IAU has just approved a dozen new names for features on Pluto’s moon Charon. They draw from an array of famous authors, characters, mythical objects and one U.S. filmmaker.
Scientists have identified an alternative DNA structure described as a “twisted knot” inside living human cells. They’re calling it the i-motif.
Earth Day is over for this year, but what it means for our future is still being talked about.
While today profuse sweating is a social embarrassment, in the past it gave us an evolutionary advantage.
When humans die out or leave Earth because of climate change, cows may be the biggest (and most widespread) animal left, thereby inheriting the planet.
Infographics present the latest NHTSA statistics on the likelihood of having a fatal accident while commuting to and from work.
Our understanding of the universe has expanded tremendously in the last few decades. But there are still some mysteries out there, and the Great Attractor is one of them.
The answer is not only telling of our biology but that of other organisms as well.
Where do cultures come from? The answer is as old as life itself.
A little peek into our past reveals tantalizing details.
A new paper explores why women gossip about each other, and identifies some key factors that influence how women choose gossiping targets.
It’s not a solution yet, but perhaps the start of one.
Sometimes conspiracy theories turn out to be true, like the one about how the CIA tried to use LSD to find a mind-control drug.
Earth is old enough to have been home to other industrialized civilizations so far back in the past we have no idea they were there. What we’ll leave behind may offer clues of what we could look for as evidence.
What do Google, sharks, and money have in common? They’re all in our weekly random fact roundup.
We’ve been taking our eyebrows for granted. They may in fact be the thing that let us become the dominant species on Earth.
Which is better? Paper towels or electronic hand dryers? Click through to find out. Plus, we give you the best handwashing tips so that you’ll get the cleanest hands.
A new study from researchers at Northwestern University and University of Surrey links being a night owl to dying younger. It’s a large study of nearly half a million people and the first to document such a link.
How we talk about genes shows many are confused. Seductive stats illusions, iffy gene ideas, bad causology, and lax jargon, are creating a recipe for epistemic comedy (and genetic tragedy).
Accident Claims Advice has made an infographic of the ways in which people often die, and figured out the odds of each one happening to you.
Black holes in these environments could combine repeatedly to form objects bigger than anything a single star could produce.
What seems like sorcery is actually smart science.
It’s the first time magnetoreception has been discovered in animals, researchers claim.
A new coating material has been developed for fighting healthcare-associated infections (HAI) using overhead lighting. It’s a new coating for hospital walls and surfaces that uses quantum dots and crystal violet to kill germs.
You already get all the vitamins you need on your dinner plate.
The suicide rate goes up in spring and summer—not winter as many believe—and studies suggest a link between immune-system inflammation from pollen and seasonal depression.
Researchers believe that the practice of sleeping through the whole night didn’t really take hold until just a few hundred years ago.