Cool

Scientists have long laughed at astrology’s underlying premise—that celestial events can influence human emotions and behavior. But a series of new studies has produced evidence that at least one kind of astronomical event—solar flares—may, in fact, affect human beings. Periodically, ...
Read More

The birth order of brothers, says George Howe Colt, is just one of the things that cause them to be so different. History is full of brothers so different that it seems impossible they could have the same parents. A ...
Read More

Mapping the infant universe is no easy task. New data from the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite is giving astronomers their most complete look yet at the very earliest moments of the universe. Planck, which measures microwave radiation, has created ...
Read More

Researchers have identified a new mechanism that drives the development of form and structure, through the observation of artificial materials that shape-shift through a wide variety of forms which are as complex as those seen in nature. It’s curious to ...
Read More

Of the world's billion Internet users, one in three logs on in English. That's no surprise. The technology got its start in the U.S., most Web pages are English, and more than 60 percent of the U.S., Canadian, U.K., and ...
Read More

Few people have traveled to the South Pole since Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott reached the bottom of the world in the austral summer of 1911-12. Fewer still stay for the six months of darkness in the winter at ...
Read More

Tired of the pretentiousness of the art world, artistic performer / radio personality Lisa Levy of Brooklyn, New York, took her stance by sitting on a toilet, naked and motionless, to protest artists' "BS" by presenting herself in the "humblest" ...
Read More

■    Michael Drysch last week had the kind of night basketball fans can only dream of. The 50-year-old computer technician had been selected to attempt a half-court shot during the Miami Heat-Detroit Pistons game. When Drysch threw his long hook ...
Read More

As humans get older, our brains shrink by about 15 percent, making us vulnerable to memory loss, dementia, and depression. But the brains of our closest relatives, chimpanzees, stay the same size throughout life, a new study has found. And ...
Read More

Residents of shorelines previously damaged by Hurricane Sandy turned to a cheap and plentiful resource to help them rebuild: discarded Christmas trees. The storm washed away miles of sand dunes, which protected the coast from flooding by serving as a ...
Read More