One of this year's coveted Lasker Awards went to three scientists who helped invent a life-saving treatment for cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease. ... Read full Story
Scientists are beginning to take clear sides on whether or not to use human-made interventions to preserve polar ice, such as pumping up seawater or launching aerosols into the atmosphere to cool the planet’s surface ... Read full Story
New photos captured during the recent "blood moon" total lunar eclipse show that the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS may be turning green as it gets closer to the sun. ... Read full Story
A newly discovered set of mathematical equations describes how to turn any sequence of random events into a clock, scientists at King's College London reveal. The paper is published in the journal Physical Review X. ... Read full Story
Accutane, a decades-old acne treatment, could help men with infertility produce motile sperm and avoid invasive sperm retrieval surgery, a study finds. ... Read full Story
Researchers tested 12 “magic mushroom” edibles. None contained psilocybin, but most contained undisclosed ingredients, including synthetic drugs whose safety hasn’t been tested in humans ... Read full Story
NASA's Earth Observatory has announced that Alaska has a "brand new island" after a retreating glacier lost contact with the Prow Knob mountain landmass in Alsek Lake. ... Read full Story
A new study finds that one quarter of heat waves between 2000 and 2023 would have been “virtually impossible” without global warming—and can be attributed to the emissions of individual energy producers ... Read full Story
Vibrations are everywhere—from the hum of machinery to the rumble of transport systems. Usually, these random motions are wasted and dissipated without producing any usable work. ... Read full Story
"Doom-mongering convinces many would-be climate advocates that climate action is a hopeless cause. But the blistering attacks against mainstream climate science and scientists advance an agenda of division, dividing the rank-and-file climate activists and leading voices from the scientific community." ... Read full Story
Scientists invent a new device that aims to solve thermal interference from electronic components — one of the biggest barriers to commercial quantum computing. ... Read full Story
The premium Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2) Sapphire Edition is now 29% off at Amazon, and the cheapest it has been since Amazon Prime Day. ... Read full Story
A new "optoexcitonic switch" already achieves state-of-the-art performance over current electronics and could serve as the basis for classical and quantum computing devices capable of operating at room temperature. ... Read full Story
NASA scientists have found more intriguing details on speckled Martian rocks spotted by the Perseverance rover. But bringing samples back to Earth will be key. ... Read full Story
Researchers found storm injuries during a baby pterosaur post-mortem, solving a Jurassic mystery that was 150 million years in the making. ... Read full Story
“Conspiracy theorists (and those of us who argue with them have the scars to show for it) often maintain that the ones debunking the conspiracies are allied with the conspirators.” — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 24 Mar. 2025
Did you know?
To debunk something is to take the bunk out of it—that bunk being nonsense. (Bunk is short for the synonymous bunkum, which has political origins.) Debunk has been in use since at least the 1920s, and it contrasts with synonyms like disprove and rebut by suggesting that something is not merely untrue but is also a sham—a trick meant to deceive. One can simply disprove a myth, but if it is debunked, the implication is that the myth was a grossly exaggerated or foolish claim.