We’ve all enjoyed the sweet, vibrant taste of grape-flavored drinks, candies, and gum, but have you ever stopped to wonder: why doesn’t it actually taste like grapes? Despite being synonymous with the purple fruit, grape flavor in many of our favorite treats doesn’t resemble the real thing at all! That sweet, sugary taste we all […]
This image of a Taurid fireball was taken in 2014 by NASA’s All Sky Fireball Network in Tullahoma, Tenn. NASA Mark Boslough, University of New Mexico With the Taurid meteor shower now hitting the night skies worldwide, look for what could be a celestial treat – you might see shooting stars, and maybe even fireballs, […]
For millions of years, glass has existed naturally. Volcanic eruptions, meteor impacts, and lightning strikes all contribute to the formation of obsidian, a type of natural glass. Ancient humans saw the value in this brittle material, using it to craft sharp-edged tools and weapons. Fast-forward to today, and we see glass in nearly every aspect […]
In 1952, polio was everywhere: killing or paralyzing roughly half a million people annually. Yet just 10 years later, paralytic polio cases in the US dropped by 96% and we were on track to get rid of polio for good. But in recent years, the virus started striking back. So, what’s behind these recent spikes? […]
In 1954, Joseph Murray attempted a type of kidney swap that no doctor had tried before. The surgery was a success, and the patient would go on to live with the transplanted organ thanks to one key factor: it came from his identical twin. 70 years later, nearly 100,000 kidneys are transplanted annually in the […]
If you ever need reconstructive surgery you may well end up seeing medicinal leeches differently. Yulya Talerenok/Shutterstock Mike Jeffries, Northumbria University, Newcastle As we tidy away the Dracula capes and glow-in-the-dark plastic fangs for another winter, one notorious blood sucker has had a particularly good year. For the first time the medicinal leech Hirudo medicinalis […]
At the height of the Cold War, a terrifying concept emerged: a bomb so powerful it wouldn’t need to be dropped. Known as Project Sundial, this doomsday device would have left a 400-km radius in flames and plunged the world into darkness. It was a bomb that would destroy everything – not a weapon, but […]
Carl Sagan at his Cornell University laboratory in Ithaca, N.Y., in 1974. Santi Visalli, Inc./Archive Photos via Getty Images Jean-Luc Margot, University of California, Los Angeles On Nov. 9, 2024, the world will mark Carl Sagan’s 90th birthday – but sadly without Sagan, who died in 1996 at the age of 62. Most people remember […]
A photo of Jupiter taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft in September 2023. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, image processing by Tanya Oleksuik Benjamin Roulston, Clarkson University Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to [email protected]. Why does Jupiter look like it has a […]
Ever wonder about the fascinating world of real-life “superpowers”? Check out this video where amazing conditions like Hyperthymestic Syndrome (giving people photographic memories), Tetrachromacy (allowing some to see a world of extra colors), and Myostatin-Related Muscle Hypertrophy (creating impressive natural strength) are explored. From Congenital Insensitivity to Pain to the rare “Vampire Syndrome,” each unique […]