Contact with alien civilizations from somewhere else in the universe has been a topic of fascination for most of human civilization. (Considering what happened to indigenous peoples in the Americas after European contact, whether or not this would be a good idea is a whole different topic, but let’s press on.) Theoretically, there could be
You’ve heard of “never smile at a crocodile”? You may not want to cry around one either. A new study of Nile crocodiles has found they respond to the sound of human babies crying, as well as infant chimpanzees and bonobos. Researchers played cries from human, chimpanzee and bonobo infants to a group of Nile
Our bodies are pretty complicated mechanisms, and they’re complex in ways we don’t fully understand. For example, why do some people have naturally curly hair? According to new research, there may have been a good evolutionary reason. A recently published research article by Tina Lasisi and her colleagues at Pennsylvania State University examined how hair regulates scalp
I remember when the height of horticultural wisdom was to talk to your houseplants to supposedly help them thrive. I used to joke with friends about taking this advice to heart. Then when my plants started answering me, I knew I needed to take a break and get out of the house. But according to
During one of my substitute-teaching assignments, at the last minute I was asked to cover a class in the vocational area of the high school. All I was given was a room number, so I was surprised to find a classroom with a hospital bed, examination table, and other medical equipment. It was a pre-nursing
What do you consider space food? In the Apollo era, astronauts ate freeze-dried, cube-shaped delicacies such as shrimp cocktail and date fruitcake, which proved entirely adequate. Apollo 8 crew member Jim Lovell was quoted as saying “Happiness is bacon squares for breakfast” while midway to the moon in 1968. Visitors to the International Space Station typically
If you ever thought your houseplants might be plotting against you, you could be right. There is mounting evidence that plants can communicate internally and with each other. “I think we’re seeing that the complexity [of communication] is just as great with plants as it is with animals,” says Mamta Rawat, a microbiologist and program
So much of our health seems to come back to strong teeth and gums. To some people, this could sound disingenuous. What could be a connection between what happens in your mouth and the rest of your body? Consider this scenario: A chronic infection settles into your gums. Since your gums are living tissue nourished
From the fertile minds of scientists comes another off-the-wall question: Exactly what is the nature of the universe? Or even more out of this world: Could we really be living in a hologram? This topic has come up due to a recent experiment. Physicists used Google’s Sycamore 2 quantum computer to create a “baby” wormhole. The
Something you probably haven’t considered recently: just how many times can a sheet of paper be folded? Conventional wisdom says about seven times, maybe eight, because the more times a sheet is folded, the thicker it gets. Once the resulting stack becomes thicker than it is long, it can no longer be folded. Consider a