A black hole has never been seen directly. There are always clear indicators of a black hole at work. For instance, this image released by NASA shows a swirling whirlpool […]

Dust surrounds the Orion Nebula, a hotbed of star formation some 1,600 light years away. Who knew dust could be this beautiful? The “intricate and picturesque filaments of dust,” as […]

This is exactly what the world needs: a trash-talking robot. Victor likes to think that he’s a a master Scrabble player, and it gives him a superiority complex that he […]

Electrical engineering maestro Steve Ward, then a college student in Illinois, programmed this Tesla coil  in 2007 so that each spark sounds like a musical note. In this now classic […]

There’s a reason why the French are the masters of making wine. The earliest evidence of wine-making discovered in France dates back to 425 BC. The French have had time […]

Are we getting closer to building an invisibility cloak? According to new research out of Duke University, science may have built an early ancestor to the science fiction device.  Watch […]

Last month in Iceland, a photographer captured this incredible aurora. Iceland’s volcano Öræfajökull can be seen in the foreground. The constellation of Orion is visible to the left of the […]

It’s Monday, and after a relaxing weekend it’s time for coffee. A lot of coffee. But do you know what can happen if you drink too much? There’s such a […]

This summer, fire up the 3D printer! Here’s another impressive success story from the 3D printing revolution: a kayak. Engineer Jim Smith, founder of Grass Roots Engineering, created a 3D […]

The night sky isn’t actually dark to begin with, according to MinutePhysics. Then why does Space at night appear dark to us? Because our universe is constantly changing and expanding, […]

Recent research suggests that our ancient cousins, the Neanderthals, may have been able to speak. Does this mean that Neanderthals had their own version of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”? We […]

Stargazers, now you can have a telescope that does the heavy-lifting for you. The Celestron Cosmos 90 GT is costly ($400), but it works with your Wi-Fi to search the heavens […]

From base to summit, Yosemite’s El Capitan is around 3,000 feet, and hiding the north celestial pole in this photograph. But follow the star trails, and you’ll of course get […]

“I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.” – Johannes Kepler 

The radiating “donut shape” around Earth has a surprising structure discovered this week. The scientists who made the discovery have dubbed it “zebra stripes.” Wired has the story: The Van […]

One of our favorite blogs, Brain Pickings, has a great piece featuring best-selling author Neil Gaiman: Neil Gaiman — prolific author, champion of the creative life, disciplined writer, sage of […]

It used to be commonly believed that the human nose can pick up 10,000 odors. We were wrong “by a factor of a hundred million,” according to The Washington Post. […]

Popular television shows have actually shaped scientific experiments? Mental Floss provides 9 examples of when researchers used TV shows to study test subjects’ behavior.  The shows include classics like Cheers, […]

One day we may need to use the Moon as a “refilling station” or for upscale retirement communities. Before Space commercial developers get any ideas, they better count on engineering […]

Alchemy was once all the rage in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Yes, people actually practiced this witchcraft-like form of chemistry. It centered around uncovering an elixir of life, […]