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Meet Unsinkable Sam: The Cat that Survived Three Ships Sinking in WWII

The black and white cat was originally named Oscar but then became known as Unsinkable Sam. He started his “career” in the fleet of the Nazi regime, the Kriegsmarine, and ended it in the Royal Navy. He was onboard Bismarck, the HMS Cossack, and the HMS Ark Royal, but here comes the cool part: while […]

Astronaut food: what astronauts eat in space

Many of you reading this hope to one day be able to explore outer space; the thrill of discovery, entwined with the peace and solitude that only the silent void can provide. It's awesome stuff, I'm completely on board. But as it usually goes, great adventures come with great sacrifices.

How does an eraser work?

When you rub an eraser across a pencil mark, the abrasives in the eraser gently scratch the surface fibers of the paper to loosen the graphite particles.

Environmental Issues: an illustrated series by Eglė Plytnikaitė

An illustrated series showcasing artworks that raise awareness on environmental issues.

Is this the most accurate tech prediction ever?

Nikola Tesla had it right since 1908.

What makes things coloured - the physics behind it

Have you ever wondered where do colours come from?

Colossus of Rhodes could stand again: bigger, unshakable and self-sufficient

If the project can find $280 million in funding.

Earth From Space: 15 Amazing Things in 15 Years from the ISS

NASA recently celebrated 15 years of continuous habitation on the International Space Station. During this time, the ISS and other satellites brought us an inestimable trove of information, pushing forth our understanding of the planet by a wide margin. Let’s have a look at some of these accomplishments. Detecting the ozone hole Monitoring the ozone hole […]

She was the first woman to get PhD in Computer Science - and she was a nun

Mary Kenneth Keller of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was a pioneer in computer science. In 1965, she, along with Irving Tang at Washington University, was the first in the United States to earn a doctorate in that field; and yes, she was not only a woman, but also a nun.

Featured Creature: The Fried Egg Jellyfish

It's time for some marine eye candy - "Fried Egg Jellyfish" exist, and they're really amazing!

Everything about Aluminium: facts, recycling, importance

The next time you throw away an aluminium can, picture the can half full of gasoline. That's how much energy goes into making it, and how much energy will have to be spent to produce a new one rather than recycle.

Do you know how much water goes to make your food?

Approximately 3.8tn cubic metres of water is used by humans annually with 70% being consumed by the global agriculture sector, according to a report issued by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME). Strikingly, up to 50% of all food is thrown away before it gets the chance to reach consumers, often out of frivolous reasons. In terms of water that's 550bn cubic metres that go to waste each year. At the same time, approximately 795 million people in the world are chronically malnourished and 1 in 10 lack access to clean water. While policy makers should take more notice and take measures to curb waste, there's much you can do yourself to cut on waste. Eglė Plytnikaitė, an illustrator from Vilnius, Lithuania made some insightful drawings showing how much water goes into some of the most popular foodstuff.

How long carved pumpkins last - and how you can make it last more

Here, we'll see what the science says.

Featured Researchers: Superhero prosthetics, artificial skin and Martian rivers

Earth’s gravity pull is opening cracks and faults on the Moon Article Featured Researcher: Thomas Watters Affiliation: Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Research Interests: Dr. Watters’ research interests are in planetary tectonics, planetary geology and geophysics, and remote sensing. His research involves the identification and characterization of tectonic landforms and the development of kinematic and mechanical […]

Your smartphone is millions of times more powerful than the Apollo 11 guidance computers

That's the year man first set foot on the moon. Our computer tech has shot even farther away, though.

Why Chinese men are the most single in the world: the perils of gender imbalance in China

Possibly the greatest demographic challenge China is facing has due to do with a hugely discrepant gender imbalance.

Featured Researchers this week in science: Plastic eating worm, huge tsunamis and life without music

It’s been a while, but we’re back with one of our favorite features – This Week in Science! If you’ve not been here for the previous editions, we’ll discuss not only the most interesting studies of the past week, but also the people behind them – the men and women pushing forth the boundaries of […]

Volcanoes in Italy: the complete guide

Italy is home to some of the world's most interesting volcanoes.

Shaky science: 9 Retracted Studies That Left a Big Mark

Scientific publishing is a competitive environment, under heavy scrutiny from reviewers, editor and peers. Over the years, some studies get retracted, and that’s not a bad thing in itself; a study can be retracted because more data is available, disproving it, or because a human or technical error snuck in – that’s perfectly understandable, and […]

This underwater bridge between Sweden and Denmark will blow your mind

The Øresund bridge is a wonder of engineering, and one of the coolest engineering accomplishments on the planet.

What is metal glass: the wonder material you've never heard of

Such materials combine the best properties of glass and metals into one amazing product.

Temari Balls: Mixing Mathematics with Beautiful Art

Temari (手まり?) balls are an ancient form of art that originated in China and got was introduced to Japan around the 7th century A.D., where it became very popular.

33 AwesomeFactory GIFs to Satisfy Your Inner Engineer

We all have a hobby. Reddit user’s -rico hobby is collecting factory GIFs. You know, the ‘How it’s Made’ kind of GIFs, the one that show how our day to day products are created? I’ve taken some from his list, found some more online, and here they are: Icecream Pretzels (several variations) Pretzels are often made by hand, […]

Crystallizing books - the spectacular art of Alexis Arnold

We see this too often – loads and loads of discarded books in storage rooms, on the sidewalk, even in our homes. Abandoned books are a much too common sight, and at least to me, a depressing sight. This inspired San Francisco-based artist Alexis Arnold to embark on a fascinating quest to make something beautiful – crystallized […]

Is organic food actually better? Here's what the science says

It happens to all of us. You’re in the supermarket, you’re buying vegetables and produce, and you’re faced with the inevitable choice: regular or organic? It’s a surprisingly complex question, that carries a different significance for different people. For some, organic means healthier, or more nutritious. For others, it means eco-friendly, or tastier. It can […]

Free retro motivational space posters

This amazing collection of space posters will light up your living room.

The Iron Snail lives on volcanic vents, two miles under the sea, all thanks to its spectacular armor

It's hard to believe anything can be alive thousands of feet below the Indian Ocean where thermal vents effectively boil the water. Yet even in the most inhospitable conditions, life has a way of creeping in. Such is the case of chrysomallon squamiferum, a snail-like creature which may very well sport the best armor in the animal kingdom.

How many germs you can find in your home: about 9,000 different species

Nothing to freak out about. This is perfectly normal.

Snow Leopards: What You Need To Know About These Magnificent Cats

For millennia, they've been the uncontested kings of the mountains, hunting prey up to three times bigger than them.

Tea Histories: Yerba Mate

Mate Tea is one of the more uncommon and special teas you can have. Not exactly a tea, it’s been a favorite of millions for hundreds of years. Typically prepared from dried leaves of Yerba Mate, the tea is served through a metallic straw called a bombilla. But let’s take it slower, and start with the […]

'Fire Rainbows' - What they are, how they form, and of course, great pictures

With the recent sighting of a fire rainbow in South Carolina, there seems to be a sudden surge of interest for this phenomenon, so I thought I’d come back with some more information. First of all, they’re not ‘fire rainbows’; in fact, they’re not rainbows at all. The correct name is circumhorizontal arc, and it’s […]

Do violent video games really make children more aggressive?

Video games don't make kids more aggressive. This myth needs to stop.

Natural News is the biggest pseudoscience hub on the internet - stop following them

Did you know that vaccines are dangerous? Or that eating whole lemons (or eggs) prevents cancer? Or that evil doctors kill people to treat them for depression, or that science in general is just bogus studies and money? Those are just some of the headlines you can find on what I believe to be one of the biggest sources […]

How long does food stay fresh? Learn what expiration dates really mean

Experts did the math and they estimate that $165 billion worth of perfectly edible food gets tossed each year, due to it passing it's expiration date. But most of these dates are largely made up.

10 of the Weirdest Internet Slang Words That Are Now in the Dictionary

No matter how puritans might hate it, the English language, as any language for that matter, is constantly shifting, expanding and transforming. Previously, languages would influence one another based on proximity. French would influence English and vice-versa. But now, the world is smaller and borders between countries are thinning. On the internet, some people seem to have a language of their own. And while parents might scorn and others laugh, you should know in all seriousness that some of the weirdest internet slang words are actually real words now, as in they can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary. Let's just look at some:

I Am Not What You Say I Am - The Strange Case of Awesome Misnomers

A misnomer is a word or term used to suggest a meaning that is not really true – misnomer doesn’t mean “misunderstanding” or “popular misconception”, as it is often implied on the internet. Most of the times, misnomers just cause some confusion and a wrong perception and sometimes those ideas get burned into the popular opinion, […]

The Skypunch - not a fancy anime combat move, but just as awesome

"Skypunch" is the colloquial name of a phenomenon known as a Fallstreak hole - a large circular or elliptical gap that can appear in cirrocumulus or altocumulus clouds.

Is Dairy Addiction Real? Here's what science says

Dairy Addiction is one idea toted not only as a notion, but as a fact by a significant number of vegans, especially ones that do not link to any reliable source (if any at all) to provide any evidence to the conclusion they have reached. So I decided that I will take it upon myself […]

Skeleton flower turns translucent when it comes in contact with water

This rare flower's petals are usually white, but turn translucent (their "skeleton" form) when exposed to water. Being completely clear and of striking, glass-like beauty while wet, they turn white again when they dry off.

Domes of ice and grass: the Pingos [with great pics]

Also called hydrolaccoliths, pingos are spectacular domes of earth and vegetation covered ice usually found in the Arctic and subarctic. They can reach up to 90 metres (300 feet) high and more than 800 metres (0.5 mile) across and are usually circular or oval-shaped. They may be green on the outside, but the core is solid, clear ice. […]

The world's religions: an overview

What drives us to create these intricate systems of tales, beliefs and myths, who starts them and why do they propagate? Is it just the need to explain the unexplainable? Is there a deeper need for order nestled in our brain that makes us pin rain and drought, life and death on some higher, but purposeful, being? I don't know. But what i can show you is what we know about how religion appeared, spread, and thought us up till today.

Meet Arthur - The stray dog that followed a team through a 430 mile race in the Amazon

A stray dog followed a Swedish racing team through 430 miles (688 km) of jungles and rivers just because one of the team members gave him a meatball during one of the early halts. A small good deed can have huge effects – this was proven by an extreme racing team and a stray dog. […]

Tiny fluffy sea slugs have Japan's netizens going crazy, and they'll give you our cute-dose for the day

Japan’s Twittersphere has just rediscovered (and is loosing its collective mind over) what is probably the cutest sea slug ever – Jorunna parva, a sea slug that looks like a fluffy bunny.

Into the Earth: The Mind Blowing Cave Photography of Robbie Shone

Robbie Shone is one of the most talented and hard working cave photographers in the world. Over the past ten years, Robbie’s passion has taken him to  China, Papua New Guinea, Borneo, Uzbekistan, Sudan, the Picos, the Alps and Crete. He has also worked closely with scouting groups in California, and documented scientists in Portugal, Switzerland […]

Georgia Guidestones -- mysterious instructions for the post-apocalypse

Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite and Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature. There's a really powerful vibe in here.

American Museum of Natural History Releases Vintage Drawings of Seashells

The American Museum of Natural History has released a set of postcards you can buy when you visit them – The Seashell Collector. I thought the set looks quite brilliant, and it’s definitely worth sharing, along with some basic information Seashells The word seashell is often used to mean only the shell of a marine mollusk […]

So you've come face to face with a bear; what should you do to bear through this?

A Montana family came perilously close to a grizzly bear near Yellowstone Park in the US when it jumped on the hood of their car. The family stayed in their car, kept the windows closed, and eventually the bear got bored and wandered off. But what happens if you don't have the safety of a vehicle?

This mirror lets you see how you look with different clothes on

A new hi-tech mirror allows clients to see how they would look like in different outfits, without having to actually try them on. From what I could find, there are two companies working on different versions of this product (one in Japan, one in America), but the bad news is that so far, it only […]

This is how the Moon looks under the microscope!

The Apollo program returned 380.05 kg of lunar rocks and soil, and most of the samples are stored at the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility. The samples of rocks, breccias, and regolith were polished into thin sections, allowing for optical geologic studies to be performed on them.

The science of soap bubbles [with great pics]

A soap bubble is a very thin sheet of water sandwiched between two layers of soap molecules. They are an evanescent childish wonder, but also hold some valuable mathematical and physical insights: let’s have a look at the science of soap bubbles. We see them as fun and childish, blowing them around in the summer, but […]
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