Visiting a haunted house or watching a horror movie can be terrifying and enjoyable at the same time. A sociologist explains the psychological benefits of being safely scared.
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Science + Tech – Articles, Analysis, Opinion
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A massive star, with a radius 500 times that of our sun, exploded. But the supernova fizzled – it was weak and dim. Figuring out what went wrong led to insights about how rare binary star systems form.
Yes, giant mosquitoes are a thing. They’re specialized to wait out the dry times only to emerge from their eggs when high water provides the perfect larval environment.
Is gene editing compatible with organic farming? A scholar explains the differences between old genetic engineering and CRISPR methods, and why the latter is similar to tradition plant breeding.
Just because you don’t have the flu doesn’t mean that your aren’t teeming with viruses inside and out. But what are all these viruses doing, if they aren’t making you sick?
A scientist explains how researchers use cloning in the lab and what is the difference between cloning a gene versus cloning an entire organism.
Progress has been made toward gender parity in science fields. But explicit and implicit barriers still hold women back from advancing in the same numbers as men to the upper reaches of STEM academia.
A legal loophole could grant computer systems many legal rights people have – threatening human rights and dignity and setting up some real legal and moral problems.
Nature doesn’t always make the things we need so three Nobel Prize winners figured out how to fast-track evolution in the lab to create medicines, biofuels and industrial chemicals for modern life.
Is it too much to dream of batteries that are part of the structure of an item, helping to shape the form of a smartphone, car or building while also powering its functions?
People are still wrestling with what artificial intelligence could and should do, half a century after the debut of the Kubrick-Clarke classic.
The Nobel Prize for physics was awarded to three scientists for the inventions of optical tweezers – in which two laser beams can hold a tiny object – and a method for creating powerful lasers.
Autonomous cars and people-centered communities are mutually exclusive, writes a cyclist and transportation scholar.
Artificial intelligence and data analytics are transforming the practice of law.
It would be great to know for sure when someone is lying and when someone is telling the truth. But no technology that purports to do so is foolproof.
It has been 10 years since Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched the commercial space age. What hurdles must be overcome before private companies begin exploring, colonizing and mining other planets?
A famous mathematician claims to have cracked a longstanding problem involving prime numbers. But his results still need to be verified.
The U.S. is not the only country worried about foreign influence over its elections. Australia is concerned too, and taking steps Americans could learn from.
Google controls what billions of people find, see, know or even are aware of. As it gets better at delivering what it thinks people want, how will that affect humans’ perceptions of their own needs?
Two neural systems record traumatic memories, meaning they can be remembered in both conscious and unconscious ways.
The inventor of the brain-teasing Möbius strip died 150 years ago, but his creation continues to spawn new ideas in mathematics.
Some of the most popular online videos are of people whispering, turning book pages or gently tapping computer keys. What is going on? A researcher explains the quest for ‘brain tingles.’
A new type of material can make it easy to put antennas almost anywhere – no matter how thin the space, or even on surfaces people need to be able to see through.
Paper-based devices with foldable, biodegradable batteries provide a new way to reduce electronic waste. But how would these new gadgets work?
Twenty-two years ago, President Clinton established Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument for paleontological conservation. As the Trump administration shrinks its borders, that mission is jeopardized.