This year, science news has understandably focused a lot on COVID-19. But other science has carried on, and there have been plenty of amazing discoveries this year that we think deserve a spotlight, too!

Cicadas have developed an amazing strategy for growth, survival, reproduction, and overcoming predation by...doing nothing. They do nothing for years (except sip at the juice excreted from root structures) before emerging in huge,...

Earlier today, mission specialists with NASA's Mars Science Laboratory announced that they have found, for the first time, evidence of an ancient environment on Mars that could have sustained life. Hank tells us the specifics in this...

Tech enthusiast Kevin Kelly asks "What does technology want?" and discovers that its movement toward ubiquity and complexity is much like the evolution of life.

Jessi and Squeaks explore nature’s way of letting off a little steam.

Artist-technologist Honor Harger listens to the weird and wonderful noises of stars and planets and pulsars. In her work, she tracks the radio waves emitted by ancient celestial objects and turns them into sound, including "the oldest...

When you picture a rocket, you might imagine a giant ship carrying lots of fuel, people and supplies. But what if the next wave of spacecraft were small enough to fit into our pockets? Dhonam Pemba details the future of microspacecraft,...

We have been studying our home galaxy for years, but even though astronomy has come a long way, there is still a lot we don't know about the Milky Way.

Imagine being excited to use one of the world's most advanced telescopes, only to see bright streaks of light on every picture! This is a problem facing some astronomers as satellites fill up the night sky.

I smell a science storm a-comin'!!

Nearly all life on Earth is ultimately powered by light. But many creatures have learned how to make their own. This week we investigate the beautiful phenomenon of bioluminescence. From blinking fireflies on summer nights to glowing...

What causes the Blood Moon?

NASA is really good at going to space, amongst other things, but did you know that part of their mission is to work also for the public good!? It's part of NASA's doctrine that they must release the patents on the stuff they work on,...

It's easy to take things at face value in video games. But when we take a deeper dive into the physics in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, it seems that the "MOON" might be one of those things that isn't quite what it seems. Given its...

In the last episode Matt discussed how the Penrose Diagram enabled you to map how black holes affect Space Time. In this episode you can use that knowledge to stop an all-too-real threat to our planet. Aliens are trying to destroy the...

Last week, seven earth-like planets were discovered orbiting a Red Dwarf star 39 light years away. Each one could be capable of supporting life.

This week, some rather confusing news from the Moon, and details about how ordinary folks like you helped classify 2 million celestial objects in just five days!

A world only 2°C warmer, or 3.6°F, would be one that is much different than the world we live in today, but what does that actually look like?

Scientists have had to come up with some extreme ways to generate the extreme pressures needed to simulate the conditions at the cores of planets!

Modern-day Ohio is more than 600 kilometers from the ocean - yet it has thousands of ocean fossils dating back to the Ordovician, giving us a glimpse at its past under an ancient, fishless sea.

Chapters

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20% OF K
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NOT 100 MILL
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Unfortunately, time machines don't exist, but there are other ways to learn about our sun's past.

2041 will be a pivotal year for our planet. That year will mark the end of a 50-year agreement to keep Antarctica, the Earth's last pristine continent, free of exploitation. Explorer Robert Swan — the first person to walk both the North...

Not all of the objects in the solar system are named after Greek and Roman gods -- some are named after literary figures, movie stars, and don't get us started on what people think Earth is really called.