Surprising Science

After displaying disappointment in the lack of diversity among its workforce, Google has launched a number of initiatives to help women and minorities become qualified for jobs in the tech sector.

Near the constellation Coma Berenices, some 63 million light-years away, is NGC 4651, a spiral galaxy about the size of our Milky Way. Extending 100 thousand light-years past its galactic […]

“One of the greatest challenges to the engineering of large tissues and organs is growing a network of blood vessels and capillaries,” said the scientist leading current research efforts.

On his blog, Caltech physicist Sean Carroll explains how if you accept quantum mechanics, it is not difficult to accept the multiple universes hypothesis.

Los Angeles dermatologist Eric Finzi has published two studies suggesting that Botox injections can relieve symptoms of depression by keeping the face from expressing sorrowful or painful emotions.

Thanks to a NASA grant, the University of Southern California’s Dr. Behrok Khoshnevis is designing robotic machines that could build landing pads, hangars, and roads out of the Martian soil.

Think a star explosion is always a pyrotechnic show far superior than all the 4th of July fireworks put together? Some stars actually explode in slow motion. NASA captured one […]

Soon after 2020, IBM expects to release commercial computer transistors made from carbon nanotubes, replacing silicon chips as the standard for personal computing devices. 

In a study that analyzed how different cultures perceive many of the words they use on a daily basis, researchers have found that humans tend to speak positively about each other and the world.

Solid experimental evidence supports the claim that meditation can reduce stress, improve general health, and perhaps most impressively, lengthen the human lifespan.

Mars One, the Dutch non-profit that last year sent out a call for volunteers for a one-way mission to Mars, is now accepting proposals for science experiments to be sent in payloads to the red planet by 2018.

The New York Supreme Court struck a blow to the oil and gas industry today when it ruled that towns can use zoning ordinances to stop landowners from engaging in hydraulic fracturing, more colloquially known as fracking. 

Gliese 832c, discovered by a team of Australian scientists, is among the top three most similar known planets to Earth.

When you think of vending machines what comes to mind is probably processed sugar, saturated fat, and colorful plastic packaging. Chicago-based startup Farmer’s Fridge is turning this notion on its […]

The run up to the war is perhaps the most glaring evidence we have of how human stupidity is the dominant theme, or a least a very powerful one, working to drive our history forward.

Having a creative mind may correlate with both sanity and madness, debunking the popular notions that creative people tend toward having a mental illness.

Three to six months after becoming parents, a quarter of fathers and nearly half of all mothers exhibit signs of clinical depression, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The space agency is testing a new device with a familiar shape in hopes of one day sending a similar craft to Mars.

Rising health costs and an aging workforce have encouraged employers to adopt or expand wellness programs aimed at boosting the health of employees.

Happy Anniversary, Curiosity Rover! The little machine that’s like a real-life Pixar hero has been exploring NASA for one Martian year. August 5th, 2012 was the exact date when it […]

A recent New York Times editorial detailed the rampant issue of child sexual abuse in China and the dire need for the government to better educate its population.

Engineering students at Olin College spent 3 months and a $250 budget to construct a face-tracking marshmallow shooter nicknamed the Confectionery Cannon.

The Myo armband, developed by Canadian company Thalmic Labs, allows wearers to control electronic devices with hand and arm gestures. The technology evokes sci-fi films such as Star Wars and Minority Report.

On the early morning of June 24, a beautiful conjunction of Venus and a waning crescent Moon graced the sky, as captured by this photograph snapped near Belmar, New Jersey. […]

Researchers believe women who have their last child after 33 are more likely to live into their late nineties. The findings are a matter of genes, meaning the relationship between late motherhood and long life is correlative, not causative.

This gem box is an archipelago of dust and gas rich galaxies called the Hercules Cluster, some 500 million light-years away. NASA has more: Also known as Abell 2151, this […]

Observational evidence gathered from a supernova blast has some physicists arguing that the constant for the speed of light, first calculated by Einstein, is in need of updating.

Neil deGrasse Tyson recently joined the ranks of Stephen Hawking, Richard Feynman, and Lawrence Krauss when he called philosophy “distracting” and criticized it for not offering the kinds of tangible gains of science.

Doesn’t this look like the cosmic equivalent of a field of irises? Perhaps that’s why this cloud of gas and dust is called the Iris Nebula. NASA released this image […]

Harvard University psychologist Daniel Gilbert says that each of us have a “psychological immune system”, in addition to our biological one, that links how we see the world with how we feel.