One day, long after the Earth has fried and the last remaining super-rich humans are floating in low-gravity spaceships or living on Mars, an astronaut…
HAPPY DRUG
Drug companies are testing ketamine to treat severe depression
The evidence that ketamine can curb the symptoms of severe depression is starting to pile up. New findings on the clinical efficacy of the well-known…
DRY CREEP
The arid US midwest just crept 140 miles east thanks to climate change
There’s a line that stretches down North America, singeing into the continent a border that separates an arid west from a humid east. And it’s…
PLANT INVASION
After 97 years selling beef, White Castle is adding Impossible Burgers to its menu
Among American fast food chains, White Castle occupies a special place in US culture. It has been the subject of a feature film, and Time…
IT'S A BEEF
US ranchers want to use the federal government as a proxy to fight high-tech meat companies
The entire American beef industry is worried about Silicon Valley’s cell-cultured meat companies, and most want to take down the tech interlopers. But the industry…
IT SNOW GOOD THING
Antarctica is turning into a snow globe because the Earth is warming
The world has been warming for at least two centuries, and it’s turning Antarctica into a veritable snow globe. Scientists this week (April 9) announced…
SKY HIGH
Welcome to the first “luxury space hotel” (which is more like a tiny, studio apartment shared by six people)
Welcome to Aurora Station, a luxurious horse pill-shaped space hotel where you’ll have the privilege of spending 12 days with five other people in the…
TAKING TECH TO TASK
If Facebook gets regulated, thank vegans
Since the revelation that Facebook lost control of the data of as many as 87 million users through Trump political consultant Cambridge Analytica, data privacy…
BURNED
A single judge just gave California coffee sellers a huge headache
A judge in California ruled this week (March 29) to back a 1986 law that requires coffee companies, distributors, and retailers to warn consumers when…
KOSHER QUESTIONS
Can pork be made kosher? Jewish scholars think it’s possible
For the first time in thousands of years, the power of modern technology may pave the way for kosher Jews to taste pork. It’s an…
DATA DOLDRUMS
Facebook is being investigated by the FTC. Here’s what it will ask
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today confirmed media reports that it is investigating Facebook, and whether the company violated a 2011 agreement over how…
FLAVOR CHANGE
Obesity is killing off people’s taste buds, and now scientists can explain why
Through the years scientists have gleaned that obesity can impact a person’s ability to taste, but until recently it’s been unclear why. Researchers at Cornell…
