Some lucky people have rare genetic mutations that enable them to feel well-rested after just four hours of sleep, while the rest of us need around eight hours to function. Now, researchers have identified one of these mutations, named SIK3-N783Y, in a human super-sleeper. The team then studied the mutation in genetically modified mice and … Read more
If a global catastrophe suddenly led to a nuclear winter, millions of people could starve. But now, scientists have figured out what crops we would need to grow to sustain a city if such a calamitous event occurred. According to a new study, farming spinach, sugar beets, wheat and carrots in urban and near-urban areas … Read more
Climate change is increasingly recognized not merely as an environmental crisis but as a threat multiplier, worsening political and economic tensions worldwide. Two factors — water scarcity and mass migration — are poised to completely reshape global conflict dynamics. Without coordinated global action, these pressures may induce a vicious circle of interlocking issues: destabilization of … Read more
Digestive gas gets the best of everyone sooner or later, often in the form of a burp. Burping is how the body clears excess gas from the upper digestive tract, which would otherwise result in extremely uncomfortable pressure in your stomach and esophagus. Or at least that’s how it works on Earth. In space, everything … Read more
In the dim twilight of an Arctic winter’s day, with the low sun stretching its orange fingers across the frozen sea, a group of researchers drill a hole through the ice and insert a hydrogen-powered pump. It looks unremarkable — a piece of pipe protruding from a metal cylinder — but it holds many hopes … Read more
Seeing or hearing someone yawn can make you yawn. This phenomenon is not limited to humans; some animals experience contagious yawning, too. But why is yawning contagious? Brain cells called mirror neurons may play a role in contagious yawning, Dr. Charles Sweet, a board-certified psychiatrist and medical adviser at Linear Health, told Live Science in … Read more
NASA’s Curiosity rover has found some of the best evidence yet that ancient life may have existed on Mars — and an answer for what could have wiped it out. When drilling into rocks on Mount Sharp, the central peak of the Red Planet’s Gale Crater, the rover found evidence of siderite, an iron carbonate … Read more
Some people get the chills or feel moved to tears when listening to certain songs, while others tend to experience a less-intense reaction to music. Now, a new study hints that your level of music enjoyment may be partially written in your genes. According to a study published March 25 in the journal Nature Communications, … Read more
Nearly three fourths of Earth is covered by oceans, making the planet look like a pale blue dot from space. But Japanese researchers have made a compelling case that Earth’s oceans were once green, in a study published in Nature. The reason Earth’s oceans may have looked different in the ancient past is to do … Read more
Dyson spheres, the hypothetical mega-structures that advanced alien civilizations might use to enclose a star and harness its energy, suffer from a fatal flaw: They are catastrophically unstable. But now an engineer claims to have figured out a way to stabilize these structures — and all it takes is two stars. In the 1960s, physicist … Read more
