The woman behind a new LSD study has a history of experimenting on herself
I'm guessing a lot of you remember this old PSA.Any questions?Apparently, yes. At least, for researchers at Imperial College London. They wanted to know more about what goes on inside the brain of...
View ArticleDon't let Antarctica's size fool you. It's melting faster than ever.
Scientists have long warned about the potential for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to dump an incomprehensible amount of ice into the sea as global temperatures rise.But their warnings were generally...
View ArticleLove Instagram? Then you should understand what's happening to your feed
Instagram has announced a proposed change to how its photo feeds will be filtered — algorithmically, instead of chronologically, meaning the latest images won't always appear at the top. The proposal...
View ArticleFighting the haze at the Grand Canyon
Back in 2009, industrial giant Cemex wanted to build a new plant near the Grand Canyon. Opposition forced the company to relocate the project farther away. Nevertheless, the battle to preserve air...
View ArticleCheck out this video of Death Valley’s amazing spring 'super bloom'
Your local garden center is probably showing off its spring flower display, but nature is putting on a massive show of its own in Death Valley, where plants have broken out in a rare and gorgeous...
View ArticleThree years later, experts say the Boston Marathon is safer. But it will...
The terrorist attack during the 2013 Boston Marathon shook the city, and three years later, security measures are still high: Drone and on-ground surveillance monitored this year's run. But security...
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After the quake: A 'spoiled European' finds Japan at its best in a crisis
The last five days and nights in Kumamoto have been frightening, tense and exhausting. But they could have been worse.As a writer who’s lived here for several years, I knew already of the famed calm...
View ArticleSome drug cartels now make more money from gold than cocaine
Organized crime networks in Latin America have long made their money off of drugs.But over the past decade, as gold prices have soared, cartels have increasingly turned to illegally mining the metal to...
View ArticleScientific study? Or spoof? You tell us.
How good are you at spotting authentic scientific research? Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research has compiled three scientific studies, at least one of which is a spoof.Read on to...
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It's an orchid. It's a mantis. It's incredible — and deadly.
Orchid mantises — particularly juveniles — seem aptly named.They’re predominantly white with pink or yellow accents, similar to some orchids and other flowers, and their four hind legs are lobed, like...
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He stunk at math. He learned calc for his girlfriend. Now? He's America's...
It’s been eight years since DJ Patil — then the data and analytics lead at LinkedIn — helped coin the term “data scientist,” and the profession has already become one of the most popular in the...
View ArticleVW deal doesn’t fix deeper problems in emissions testing
German carmaker Volkswagen agreed Thursday to buy back or fix almost half a million cars in the US that it rigged to cheat on emissions test.The framework deal allows owners to choose whether they’d...
View ArticleHope for the climate? Countries are lining up to sign the Paris deal, and it...
Usually a parade of global figures lining up at the UN to sign a document is pretty much just for show — a lot of words and gestures for questionable real-world impact.But Friday’s signing ceremony for...
View ArticleShe loved to run. In India, she couldn't. It was unhealthy.
I moved to New Delhi in the fall of 2013 and my body reacted almost immediately to the city’s air quality, which is among the worst in the world.I developed a perpetually a stuffy nose. When I first...
View ArticleLouisianans rally against new Gulf oil leases
Louisiana has long been a friendly state to the oil and gas industry, but a movement is building against the effects of drilling in the region.Hundreds of people recently rallied at the Superdome in...
View ArticleDid climate change cause these ancient civilizations to collapse?
Scientists have documented the environmental impacts of climate change — including melting ice sheets— and predicted rising sea levels. But can climate change also disrupt culture? Reporting in Science...
View ArticleLand restoration on the Gulf Coast is showing some progress
A 50-year, $50 billion plan is underway to rebuild as much as 33,000 acres of wetlands in the Mississippi River Delta. But questions about funding the project remain unresolved and even if the plan is...
View Article'Space archaeologists' and activists are using satellites to unearth history
Satellites are integral for modern communication, navigation and weather forecasting. But advances in satellite technology, however, are allowing for new political and archaeological applications....
View ArticleChernobyl and ‘the summer without children’
On April 26, 1986, a routine test on reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant went horribly wrong. The reactor in Ukraine, in the old Soviet Union, went into meltdown. It became the world’s...
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30 years after Chernobyl, these Ukrainian babushkas are still living on toxic...
Even if you weren't alive back then, you almost certainly know what happened 30 years ago this week — April 26, 1986.An explosion that day at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine...
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