Although birth control for women runs the gamut from a range of hormonal pills to implantable devices, options for men are pretty limited. Basically you can use condoms, which a lot of people don’t like, or get a vasectomy, a permanent surgical procedure.
If you weren’t amazed by octopuses before, you will be now.
We’re all supposed to be getting between seven and nine hours of sleep every night, and that gets harder and harder to do that as we age—especially once we hit our 50s and beyond. For a while, scientists thought that the older among us simply needed less sleep. But that wouldn’t explain why the elderly tend to feel tired throughout the day—or how often they fall into unplanned naps (paywall).
There are lots of reasons why cannibalism isn’t a good idea.
Reindeer have not had an easy time recently. There are only about 600,000 left of them, down from 1.5 million in 2000 thanks to dwindling habitat due to climate change, and last August, 318 of those were struck by lightning in a single storm and killed.
Even after four years of college, four of medical school, and three to seven more of residency, doctors still may not get diagnoses right on the first try.
There is a certain horror that comes with facing a bed-bug infestation. Some researchers have compared the anxiety these tiny parasites produce to be as bad as PTSD in some cases.
Scientists made it possible for terminally ill cancer patients to wear part of their treatment while they go about their days.
Our thoughts and emotions can influence our physical states and vice versa. When we’re stressed, we tend to take short, rapid breaths of air. Conversely, mental health professionals often tell patients with anxiety or depression to take deep breaths as a way of calming down, and yoga practitioners know pranayama as the controlled breathing to shut down anxious thoughts during sessions.
To the untrained eye, the fang blenny, or Meiacanthus grammistes, is rather unremarkable. It’s black-and-white striped with a yellow head, and it only grows to be about 4 inches (10cm) long. Although it’s native to tropical Pacific waters, it’s commonly found in household aquariums.
Stuck in the middle seat next to someone with raging body odor? You could get kicked them off the flight.
Mosquitoes spend a lot of time in the air—it’s how they hunt, find mates, and even lay eggs. But for all the time they’re actually airborne, it turns out they’re not actually that efficient at flying.
Although marathon runners are widely regarded as some of the healthiest people on Earth, cranking out those 26.2 miles (42 kilometers) does a number on your body. In addition to all wear and tear it puts on your muscles, bones, and heart, it can also affect your kidneys. Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine found that 80% of runners who completed marathons had kidney function that looked similar to patients who just underwent heart surgery.
In 2003, the US Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health announced that—13 years and $2.7 billion later—they had finally finished mapping the human genome.
When NASA announced in February that not one, but seven Earth-like planets had been discovered in a solar system called Trappist-1, 39 light years away, the eyes of astronomers (and amateur space enthusiasts) lit up at the new possibility of finding life outside Earth.
As a kid, Ellen Currano loved dinosaurs. When she was six years old, she came home from school and announced to her parents that she wanted to be a paleontologist. She never wavered on that commitment, and is now a paleobotanist at the University of Wyoming.
Music can be a lifesaver—literally.
What have we done to deserve dogs?
Sometimes, the best way to make a point is through comedy.
Before it can send astronauts to Mars, NASA needs to figure out how to feed them there. To work that out, the US space agency teamed up with a research group in Peru focused exclusively on spud research.
In 1990, SETI researchers first spotted Pan, one of Saturn’s 62 officially recognized moons, tucked away among the planet’s rings, but it would be another 27 years before they could see it up close.
Ah, science: The objective roadmap for solving life’s most pressing questions. And also, for figuring out whether or not human farts emit harmful bacteria.
Because most of us brush our pearly whites at least twice a day, we rarely think of them as time capsules for the stuff we’ve put in our mouths.
Nancy Miorelli has never been afraid of bugs.
