Articles

Junk food and processed food has gotten a bad reputation as a primary cause of weight gain, but journalist David Freedman says, with some changes, it could actually help the obese in America's poorest neighborhoods.

Forget the Vegetables—Junk Food Could Help Fight Obesity

Journalist David Freedman says engineering healthier versions of popular treats could finally help the poorest and most obese Americans lose weight

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London’s New Years Eve Will Feature Edible Confetti And Scented Fireworks

Only time will tell whether the sites and sounds and tastes and smells are a success, but no one can say London didn't try

The History of Cone-Shaped Medieval Princess Hats

Known as hennins, the tall headdresses were popular among European noblewomen in the late Middle Ages

Six Things We Learned About Our Changing Climate in 2013

Scientists are in agreement that human activities are altering our climate—and it's an illusion that the pace of changes seems to have slowed down

This Texas Teen's Most Productive Fishing Hole Is the Sewer

Kyle Naegeli, 15, first discovered this unlikely fishing hole after he made a $5 bet with his dad

Doctors Are Now Prescribing Books to Treat Depression

Reading to feel less isolated may be more than just a poetic thought

Tolkien's Dwarves Would Have Needed 38 Mini-Nuclear Plants to Melt All That Gold So Quickly

Unless those dwarf furnaces were burning some sort of Middle-earth super fuel, in real life Smaug probably would have just eaten the dwarves

Jupiter's moon Io in orbit around the gas giant. Io is casting a dark shadow on Jupiter's atmosphere.

Did Astronomers Just Find the First Moon Outside Our Solar System?

The potential moon is half the size of Earth and in orbit around a planet four times bigger than Jupiter

Batteries

The Latest Technology in Cheap Energy Storage Is Manufactured with Pasta Makers

A startup based in Manhattan called Urban Electric Power is taking a stab at the energy storage problem.

Orbus chirurgia, a scorpion used for semi automated and remote surgery.

Art Meets Science

An Artist Imagines the Techno-Evolved Creatures of the Future

Vincent Fournier has seen the future of evolution, in which humans design animals for their own uses

The tracks and individual cabins of a new train would be built so that, as the high-speed and local train move alongside each other, a link can be secured momentarily, creating a transfer gate for passengers to get on and off.

Tech Watch

This High-Speed Train Picks Up Passengers Without Having to Stop

It's possible to let passengers board trains through separate cars that latch on, but who will take the risk to make it happen?

Science Is Inching Closer to the Possibility of Erasing Bad Memories

Scientists began tinkering with memory in the late 1960s, but it's only recently that research really began to hint that this might be possible

Get Geeky About Dialects With the Dictionary of American Regional English

Did the NYTimes' dialect quiz get you interested in regionalisms? Then check out the Dictionary of American Regional English

Coconut Crabs Eat Everything from Kittens to, Maybe, Amelia Earhart

According to one theory, Earhart did not drown in the Pacific but instead crashed on the remote Nikumaroro atoll, where she was eaten by coconut crabs

Sewage Water Reveals Community’s Illegal Drug Habits

Sewage analyses in the US found the highest levels of methamphetamines to date, but revealed that cocaine use in the US seems on par with that in Europe

Can You Fry Things in Space?

Can the good old American tradition of caking foods in grease continue in the vast recesses of space?

A U.S. destroyer, part of the U.S. 6th Fleet, sits near Syria.

Syria's Chemical Weapons Are Going on a Convoluted Journey Before They're Destroyed

Multiple nations and multiple hand-offs will take Syria's chemical weapons out of the country for disposal

Hadza hunter-gatherers on the hunt for dinner.

Animals And Humans Use Similar Tactics to Find Food

The authors think this particular foraging method may have evolved in early humans and stuck around through the eons due to its effectiveness

A member of the Texas Camel Corps.

Cool Finds

The United States Army Used Camels Until After the Civil War

When the first American settlers started moving west, their horses and mules weren't cut out for the long, dry treks

The Carmat artificial heart features sensors to monitor and adjust blood flow depending on the body's demands.

The World's First True Artificial Heart Now Beats Inside a 75-Year-Old Patient

The two-pound Carmat heart quickens or slows blood flow based on a person's physical activity

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