Medieval times were not as scientifically stunted as we think. Historian Seb Falk explains how those myths arose — and what science looked like. | Continue reading
Pyramid workers were paid locals. Yet historical narratives and Hollywood films have made many believe the Jews built the pyramids while enslaved in Egypt. | Continue reading
A cheap, portable quantum computer, aimed at schools and colleges will be launched later this year. | Continue reading
A simulated fruit fly brain has learnt to perform natural language processing tasks. | Continue reading
A year ago two dozen emergency room staff were mysteriously felled by fumes emanating from a dying young woman. Investigations turned up nothing — until a team of chemists from a nuclear weapons lab got involved. | Continue reading
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The monuments at Giza might be the best known, but another pyramid preceded the greats. | Continue reading
Researchers say that these trees are evidence of early crop cultivation by ancient humans in Amazonia. | Continue reading
After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe wasn’t quite the horrible and backwards place earlier historians would have you believe. Modern scholars now look at the Dark Ages in a whole new light. | Continue reading
For centuries, the bleeding edge of medical practice involved leeches, lancets and draining perfectly good blood from already-ailing patients. Was there ever a scientific method to this madness? Sort of. | Continue reading
Tons of solar panels installed in the early 2000s are reaching the end of their lifecycles, posing a serious problem for the industry to contend with. Current solar panel disposal practices are far from being environmentally friendly. | Continue reading
Physicists give us an early view of a third kingdom of quasiparticles that only arise in two dimensions. | Continue reading
Your smartphone is probably powerful enough to be the eyes, ears and brain of a robot. Now Intel researchers have released a free design that can make this possible. | Continue reading
Deep learning algorithms are prone to a previously unknown problem, say a team of computer scientists at Google. | Continue reading
As ancient remains are uncovered and dated, archeologists expand their search for the evolutionary birthplace of Homo sapiens, and debate whether such a place exists. | Continue reading
We’re more than just opposable thumbs — our hands gave us tools, new skills and better communication. | Continue reading
Mounting evidence shows bugs in your digestive system influence the brain. Experts are now testing psychobiotics as mental health remedies. | Continue reading
Like clockwork, seismometers across multiple continents have detected a mysterious pulse since at least the early 1960s. | Continue reading
In just a few centuries, the people of Easter Island wiped out their forest, drove their plants and animals to extinction, and saw their complex society spiral into chaos and cannibalism. Are we about to follow their lead? | Continue reading
Pure physics can explain this one. | Continue reading
There’s a man who loves chickens almost as much as he loves science. He’s probing the depths of evolutionary biology, genetics and the unexpected benefits of feral birds. | Continue reading
From Kokopelli to the Eye of Horus, some icons popular today have lost their original meanings. | Continue reading
The next generation of the Internet will rely on revolutionary new tech. It will make unhackable networks real — and transmit information faster than the speed of light. | Continue reading
The Milky Way is filled with planets. Now astronomers have found the first candidate planet in another galaxy. | Continue reading
There might some truth to the beloved quote, "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies." Researchers say reading fiction can show us different viewpoints — and shape how we relate to each other. | Continue reading
A series of quantum experiments shows that measurements performed in the future can influence the present. Does that mean the universe has a destiny—and the laws of physics pull us inexorably toward our prewritten fate? | Continue reading
The advent of agriculture was a watershed moment for the human race. It may also have been our greatest blunder. | Continue reading
Long considered science fiction, leaving the solar system and speeding amid the stars may soon be within reach | Continue reading
Do dreams exist to protect the brain's visual cortex? | Continue reading
Nearly 100 years after quantum mechanics was introduced, scientists still don’t agree on what it means | Continue reading
The medical elite thought they knew what caused ulcers and stomach cancer. But they were wrong — and didn't want to hear otherwise. | Continue reading
A doctor is baffled: Why did a giant man walk into the ER holding a tiny woman by her feet? | Continue reading
How hyperbolic geometry, once considered mathematical heresy, could help us understand human perception. | Continue reading
Like biological brains, artificial neural networks may depend on slow-wave sleep for learning. | Continue reading
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Hint: It happened on August 27, 1883. | Continue reading
A woman keeps passing out, and no one can figure out why. | Continue reading
Scientists searching through Ottoman Empire records found letters from high-ranking officials that describe a large fireball followed by meteorites that struck a village. | Continue reading
Our best bet could be to send a swarm of nanospacecraft — propelled from Earth by a powerful laser — to take a look. | Continue reading
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What day is it, again? COVID-19 has put our lives at a standstill. Here’s why that can make the whole experience seem longer. | Continue reading
Stephen Wolfram, a controversial physicist and computer scientist, has united relativity, quantum mechanics and computational complexity in a single theory of everything. But will other physicists be convinced? | Continue reading
Crusading mycologist Paul Stamets says fungi can clean up everything from oil spills to nuclear meltdowns. | Continue reading
The one with its own satellite, the ones that made you, and the Mama of them all | Continue reading