Thanks to X-ray telescopes, scientists in the 1970s found the first real evidence that black holes actually existed, and astronomer Andrew Fabian has used X-ray research to unlock incredible mysteries ever since, including a giant sound...

Have we used up all our resources? Have we filled up all the livable space on Earth? Paul Gilding suggests we have, and the possibility of devastating consequences, in a talk that's equal parts terrifying and, oddly, hopeful.

Photographer Monika Bulaj shares powerful, intimate images of Afghanistan -- of home life, of ritual, of men and women. Behind the headlines, what does the world truly know about this place?

These giant balls of mucus may seem like a bizarre sight in the open ocean, but all this snot serves a purpose, both for the tiny creatures that produce it and for the entire ocean ecosystem!

Why The Full Moon is Better in Winter

The history books are full of mysteries, some of which we're just now getting around to solving.

OSIRIS-REx finally entered orbit around the asteroid Bennu this week and new research has found an old recipe for RNA.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Die Zauberflote" ("The Magic Flute") is widely regarded as one of the most influential operas in history. And while it may seem like a childish fairytale at first glance, it's actually full of subversive...

How many stars are there in the universe? Are there more stars out there than grains of sand on Earth? Thanks to advanced space telescopes, we've been able to peer farther into deep time and the distant universe than we ever thought...

SpaceX's Starship launch vehicle has the potential to explore the solar system in a bold, new -- and supersized -- way. Planetary scientist Jennifer Heldmann talks about how reusable, large-scale spacecraft like Starship could help...

It's okay to be small?

In a powerful talk, educator Eldra Jackson III shares how he unlearned dangerous lessons about masculinity through Inside Circle, an organization that leads group therapy for incarcerated men. Now he's helping others heal by creating a...

The New Horizons spacecraft has given us lots of clues about the early days of our solar system, but we don't always have to travel billions of kilometers to peer into our past.

Humans should urinate at least four to six times a day, but occasionally, the pressures of modern life force us to clench and hold it in. How bad is this habit, and how long can our bodies withstand it? Heba Shaheed takes us inside the...

Do you wait to charge your phones battery until it's close to dying? If you do- surprise! You're doing it wrong.

Right now, billions of neurons in your brain are working together to generate a conscious experience -- and not just any conscious experience, your experience of the world around you and of yourself within it. How does this happen?...

"Full access to a person's phone is the next best thing to full access to a person's mind," says cybersecurity expert Eva Galperin. In an urgent talk, she describes the emerging danger of stalkerware -- software designed to spy on...

A 50-foot-long carnivore who hunted its prey in rivers 97 million years ago, the Spinosaurus is a "dragon from deep time." Paleontologist Nizar Ibrahim and his crew found new fossils, hidden in cliffs of the Moroccan Sahara desert, that...

These days, we’re pretty good at harnessing the power of antibodies for medicines and as molecular tools, but they do have some drawbacks. So, cutting-edge researchers are hoping to develop smaller and more stable alternatives, and...

Venus is a gorgeous naked-eye planet, hanging like a diamond in the twilight -- but it’s beauty is best looked at from afar. Even though Mercury is closer to the sun, Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, due to a runaway...

Creating a Mars colony is a dream for many people, but it comes with some unique and challenging problems.

A complete microbiome lives inside us, and believe it or not, that's a good thing.

Learn why tuberculosis, TB, is the world’s most infectious disease and how medical advancements are improving treatment. -- In 2008, two 9,000-year old skeletons were found with their bones infected by an all too familiar bacterium....

In the past decade, the US honeybee population has been decreasing at an alarming and unprecedented rate. While this is obviously bad news for honeypots everywhere, bees also help feed us in a bigger way -- by pollinating our nation's...