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Biden administration extends the student loan repayment delay

A sigh of relief for students -- but student loan relief will definitively end in January.

A new IPCC report on climate change is coming. What should we expect?

It will be a wake up call for governments, urging them to act on the climate crisis

High cholesterol drug could reduce SARS-CoV-2 infection by 70%

The licensed drug treats high cholesterol in the blood and may also work in treating COVID-19 patients.

Gruesome horde of thousands of animal bones leftovers from hyenas, including those from humans, found in Saudi Arabia

Researchers found gnaw marks on most of the bones pointing to striped hyenas.

Pesticides, parasites, hunger -- bees worldwide are dying faster than we thought, other pollinators might be too

They're definitely not having a buzzing good time.

Why Stonehenge megaliths stay up after 5,000 years -- it's all geology

A long-lost piece from the monument brought some answers

People who harbor conspiracy theories are willing to get the vaccine -- as long as their friends do, too

It only works for those who have a somewhat conspiracy mindset. Those with entrenched views are less likely to get the vaccine no matter what.

Biochar can help us keep climate change at bay and more food on the table, according to a new meta-study

I’m always down with more food and fewer heatwaves.

Bottled water is 3,500 times worse for the environment than tap water -- at least in Barcelona

Researchers calculated the impact for the city of Barcelona

Machu Picchu is even older than we thought

The stone palace may have been in use from 1420 to 1530.

Unprocessed plant-based food keeps your heart healthier at any age

Fewer burgers, more broccoli.

Astronomers Spot an Exoplanet with Half the Mass of Venus

It's one of the smallest exoplanets found thus far

Muscles are important, but stiff tendons are the secret ingredient for high-speed performance

The fastest sprinter is the world right now is Lamont Marcell Jacobs, who won Olympic gold in the men’s 100-metre sprint with a time of 9.80 seconds. You might be surprised to learn that most of the explosive power displayed by Jacobs and other elite athletes doesn’t come from their muscles, or even from their […]

Oldest example of applied geometry found in 3,700-year-old Babylonian clay tablet

The tablet shows that ancient Babylonians used Pythagorean triples to survey plots of land a thousand years before Pythagoras was born.

Tokyo Olympics: why the stories of elite athletes make for such great childrens’ books

Whether it’s Tom Brown, the principled captain of the cricket team in Tom Brown’s School Days, or Darrell Rivers playing lacrosse in Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers, or Harry Potter making the Quidditch team in his first year at Hogwarts, the sporting hero has long been a stalwart of children’s literature. The most popular child protagonists […]

Learning music changes how our brains process language, and vice-versa

Practice makes perfect!

Scientists turn water into shiny metal

No alchemy involved -- just clever science.

Uniform discontent: how women athletes are taking control of their sporting outfits

Women’s dress codes in sport are determined by “traditions” that are both outdated and gendered. Their outfits have long tried to reconcile notions of “femininity” with those of “athleticism”, but this process has turned women into objects to be admired rather than being valued for their sporting skills. However, there is recent rebellion in the […]

Spanish cave paintings confirmed to have been made by the Neanderthals

They painted it thousands of years before we got to Europe.

Should vaccinated people wear masks indoors? Here's what the experts say

The Delta variant has changed the equation, and experts suggest we err on the side of caution.

Our eyes have a focal point -- but images don't seem to focus on it, weirdly

This, unexpectedly, makes our vision a bit better.

Cheap material could help convert waste heat into electricity

More than 65% of the energy we use is wasted as heat.

Not so picky and coy after all: Female animals also have mating contests. They're just more subtle than males

The effect of sexual selection on females has been largely ignored in favor of the more pronounced and obvious effect on males.

Any amount of neonicotinoids can be harmful for bees, study finds

More reasons to ditch this commonly used insecticide

Most baby turtles in the oceans have plastic in their guts. 'It's an evolutionary trap,' scientists say

The impact on their health is unclear but it can’t be too good.

Earth's rotational slowdown may have led to life as we know it

The transition towards longer days may have allowed cyanobacteria enough breathing room to produce enough oxygen to dramatically and forever alter Earth’s atmosphere.

Greece orders emergency measures as heatwave grips the country

The future is here, and it looks drenched in

Radio-wave treatment shows some promise against liver cancer

Although not yet conclusive, the findings are quite encouraging.

What Olympic gymnasts can teach us about improving our balance

The acrobatic handsprings, somersaults and twists performed by world-class gymnasts at the Tokyo Olympics are among the most complex skills humans can perform. But at their heart is an instinctive process that can help teach us mere mortals how to stay safe from falls as we move much less spectacularly around our own environment. To […]

Martian buried lakes may actually just be clay

It's still pretty neat... but not as exciting as water.

The oldest animal life on Earth was discovered in Canada: 890 million years old

That's a lot of "million years ago".

The International Space Station was briefly knocked out of position by a Russian module

Everybody is fine and we've put it back in place.

What is gravitational lensing -- and how it helped prove Einstein right

Massive objects become the astrophysicists’ extra lenses.

We might have discovered the oldest animal fossils yet in the Canadian Northwest

Now we need to confirm that these were indeed sea sponges.

Sydney extends lockdown for another month as coronavirus cases keep mounting

Low vaccination rates have plunged Australia's cities into repeated lockdowns.

Dementia cases estimated to triple worldwide by 2050, as populations and average age increase

Sometimes, we do have to suffer for our success.

Why a coral reef doesn't have legal rights and other questions we should be asking

A book on coral reefs you don't want to miss out on.

A lab experiment shows that we could engineer malaria-carrying mosquitoes to kill themselves off

Not the kindest thing to do, probably, but it's still a cool idea.

Machine learning is paving the way towards 3D X-rays

It's still not ready for a hospital near you, but it will get there eventually.

Hubble finds water vapor on Jupiter's moon Ganymede

Our solar system just keeps getting more interesting.

Math researcher and amateur cyclist wins heroic gold at Tokyo Olympics

Austria’s Anna Kiesenhofer capitalized on her rival’s confusion in the women's road race.

Five new sports you can see at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. What you need to know

Four new sports are making their debut at the Tokyo Olympic Games, while baseball and softball are making a comeback.

Internet censorship causes stock market instability

Turns out, the free market doesn't really like censorship that much.

Argentinian lake turns bright pink due to industrial pollution

Not pretty, in pink.

Ingenuity has flown a full mile over Mars, and broken its altitude record

Our first Mars helicopter is busy growing into its own.

AI helps NASA look at the Sun with new eyes

Hindsight is 20/20 -- and so is a telescope equipped with AI.

NASA's InSight probe peers into the heart of Mars, sees Earth-like layers

Earthquakes passing through the planet's depths reveal bits about its structure -- but we're just scratching the surface.

A drone-flying software outperforms human pilots for the first time

It's not ready for commercial applications, but the potential is there.

The "most significant contribution AI has made to science": Google's AlphaFold will release the structure of every protein known to science

AI is done playing -- it's time to start dealing with real-world problems.

Difficulties hearing speech over noise? That may be an early sign of dementia, new study says

New evidence that hearing impairment significantly contributes to the risk of dementia.