Surprising Science

There’s a cosmic creature lurking in IC 1396, a star formation region full of dust clouds and gas. Or at least that’s what it looks like in this image.  NASA explains:  […]

On April 15th, starting at 2am EDT, if you’re in North America be sure to go outside and marvel at the “blood moon.” NASA provided a helpful video (below) to […]

Editor’s Note: This article was provided by our partner, RealClearScience. The original is here. Code-makers and code-breakers are locked in an eternal conflict. Thus far, they’ve matched each other pretty much […]

Andreas Schleicher, the Acting Director for the Directorate of Education and Skills and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), on how education can help students meet the challenges of today.

If a human hovered close to the giant ringed planet, she would see Saturn as partly blue. In March 2006, the robot Cassini spacecraft, still orbiting Saturn, snapped this image […]

The mind seeks out patterns, and this can lead to some tricky mind games…played by your own mind, on you. This could happen when a song gets stuck in your […]

Did you know that hobbits were real? Well, a species that shared similar traits with hobbits existed here on Earth (not just Middle Earth) 18,000 years ago. The one-yard tall […]

A new study from Michigan State University found that the brains of optimists and pessimists are different. So the next time you tell someone to “cheer up, Charlie” or “walk […]

This image shows Mars nearing opposition on April 8th. On April 11th, Mars is between opposition and closest approach, April 14th, when it will be the closest distance to Earth […]

As Stephen Hawking warned, we better move from Earth or face extinction. Where should we go shopping? Hank Green, the host of the SciShow, acts as our real-estate agent of […]

Wild adult cats don’t knead, but tamed (spoiled) adult house cats love to dig into an owner’s skin. The painful activity is often referred to as “making biscuits,” likely because […]

NASA recently announced a cool discovery: asteroids can have rings! Luckily, the one that revealed this is not headed for us.  The asteroid 10199 Chariklo, orbiting the sun between Saturn […]

This incredible video of a family stumbling on a whale trapped in a fishing net in the Sea of Cortez will put a smile on your face.  Michael Fishbach, a conservationist […]

Albert Einstein passed away on April 18, 1955. A photographer from LIFE snapped his desk at Princeton hours after Einstein had died. Einstein gave new meaning to the saying, cluttered […]

Healing leaves scars, but regeneration leaves the cells in their original state.  Spinal cord injuries today are considered devastating, but new research suggests that there’s hope in regeneration.  DNews has […]

They say that salt is the silent killer. Unfortunately, it makes everything taste more delicious. The good news is that recent research says that Americans consume a healthy amount of […]

Physicists used to believe that the universe existed forever, there was no beginning, and there would be no end. The universe seemed as constant, as dependable as the night sky […]

Let’s face it. The way we’re treating the Earth, we’re going to need a new home, likely very soon. Stephen Hawking has even warned us to abandon Earth or face […]

Around 1,500 light-years away, hot young stars surrounded by glowing gas make up the Great Nebula in Orion. This massive starbirth region is on the edge of an interstellar molecular […]

The ancient monastery in Petra, Jordan tracked the sun, helping people tell time and worship their faith, scientists have discovered.  

Every 26 months, an opposition of Mars occurs. The “red planet” gets closer to Earth. On April 14th, Mars and Earth will be at their closest distance during this opposition. […]

Autism researchers recently made a major discovery. They found that the cerebral cortex wasn’t neatly layered in the brain tissue of autistic children like it is in the brains of […]

Underground oceans may be venting through these long “tiger stripes” on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The moon’s icy interior shoots ice through the stripes and into space.  NASA has more:  Long features […]

Once, dinosaurs strutted around the Earth as if they owned the place. That’s at least a fun way to imagine them. The stride marks they left behind, preserved as fossilized […]

Yes, robots are becoming more sophisticated these days. As we reported here on Big Think, researchers in the US developed a method for robots to teach each other new skills. […]

Here at Big Think, we’re big fans of believing in the existence of parallel universes. Our resident expert Dr. Michio Kaku even explains how to escape into one. But what’s […]

To take an idea and put it into Earth’s orbit requires the dedication of an incredible amount of time, energy, and resources to not only the payload itself, but also […]

Dark matter is four times more common in the universe than visible matter. How do we know that it’s there if we’ve never seen it? The force of gravity keeping […]

These red waves of glowing gas arch toward the constellation of Cygnus. They can be found in the western part of the Veil Nebula, the remnant of a large supernova […]

If Hannah Horvath is really the voice of Generation Y, it must be a fairly self absorbed generation indeed. It’s more hopeful to think that it might be found in […]