Surprising Science

The African immune system has a downside—a higher risk of an autoimmune disorder.  

It’s time to stop thinking of just five human senses, since neuroscience is revealing we have many more.

A new videogame has bad guys that evolve in response to the way you play.

The ridiculousness of Hollywood science when it comes to memory loss.

Work on “memes” by Richard Dawkins provides insight on the spread of thought viruses.

Oceanographer Sylvia Earle shares the wonder of experiencing the ocean’s creatures in the wild.

Time travel has titillated scientists and science-fiction fans alike ever since HG Wells first conceived of it in the 19th century. But it plausible? Princeton astrophysicist John Richard Gott III discusses the two ways that it might be.

Of all the fictional ways humanity might possibly kill itself, zombies are the most likely. Here’s the data to prove it.

This is the first evidence of any contact between ancient Greece and China.   

We should be exploring the oceans as seriously as we explore space.

Meteorologists propose a stunning new explanation for the mysterious events in the Bermuda Triangle.

A small, icy planet with a weirdly elliptical orbit has been discovered beyond Pluto.

Geneticists and cave paintings identify a lost species they puckishly name the “Higgs bison.”

This offers hope in the face of a disease which currently has no treatment option to halt its progression.   

Meteorologist Cliff Mass explains why and how U.S. weather forecasting is falling behind.

Fraternal twins tend to live longer than singletons. But identical twins generally outlive fraternal ones.  

Rowan Jacobsen recently wrote an obituary for one of Earth’s natural wonders: the Great Barrier Reef. “The Great Barrier Reef of Australia passed away in 2016 after a long illness. It was 25 million years old,” he wrote in Outside. But publishing its obituary might be a bit premature.

A new experimental drug can theoretically take out any virus, while leaving healthy cells unharmed. 

Researchers video chimpanzee mothers teaching their kids how to use tools.

Already a euthanasia pioneer, being the first to legalize it in 2002, the Netherlands may allow for the assisted suicide of older people who feel as if they’ve “completed life”.

A brain-computer music interface system allows four patients to compose their own string quartet.

An explanation of why clean coal is just fiction, or at best a climate-change denier’s fantasy.

Instead of an autoimmune disorder, scientists now believe a conspiracy of pathogens cause it. 

The mystery behind star KIC 8462852 (aka Tabby Star) continues. Many scientists have proposed ideas but all explanations (so far) seem as unlikely as the Dyson Sphere theory.

Christina Smolke, a brilliant Stanford scientist, has engineered yeast that can produce opiates without poppies.

Two powerful organizations have dedicated themselves to getting to Mars. One is SpaceX, the other is the US government. Will they both get there?

A second major California fault line has been found near the San Andreas Fault.

In a world that’s always connected, we give away an essential part of our selves with constant distractions.

Two strange Oliver Sacks stories about the mind and music from Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain.

Though just preliminary data, an anonymous patient’s blood is reportedly clear of HIV. A new trial testing a novel HIV therapy has seemingly cured a 44-year-old man, one of 50 participants.