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New Research

Your Pupils May Expand When You Daydream

But researchers aren’t totally sure why or how the two are connected

Brain tissue infected with Naegleria fowleri glows green.

New Research

Brain-Eating Amoebas May Kill You With Help from Your Own Immune System

The amoeba’s presence in the brain triggers swelling that may do more harm than good

This fasciated flower — a White Mule’s Ear, found in Island Park, Idaho — has the same disorder found in flowers near Fukushima

Cool Finds

Don’t Freak Out Over the Funky Flowers That Appeared Near Fukushima

The odd appearance is due to a plant disorder called fasciation

Trending Today

An Explosion at a National Lab is Being Linked to Meth

A former combustion research lab seems to have been used for a very different purpose: cooking methamphetamine

The tasty bruschetta in the study.

New Research

Great Appetizers Can Spoil the Main Meal

The contrast is key

A graphical abstract from the paper shows the bat approaching its pitcher plant partner.

New Research

This Plant Calls to Bats So They Will Poop in it

Specially shaped reflectors bounce back the squeaks of echolocating bats

Two black rhinos, a mother and her calf, explore a watering hole at Etosha National Park in Namibia.

Cool Finds

Researchers are Fitting Rhinos With Hidden Horn Cameras

One non-profit wants to outfit the animals with cameras and heart rate monitors to save them

A helicopter drops approximately gallons of water from a “Bambi Bucket” on to the Stetson Creek Fire near Cooper Landing, Alaska, June 17, 2015.

Watch Wildfire Smoke from Alaska and Canada Envelop the Arctic

Here’s why that’s bad

The Oldest Bald Eagle in the U.S. Was Killed by a Car Last Month

Here’s to you, 629-03142

In early July, Sentinel-2A captured this image of the Sahara in central Algeria.

Cool Finds

See the Algerian Sahara From Space

It’s pretty spectacular

New Research

Think Ocean Water is Gross? Sand Is Way Grosser

New research shows that microbes take longer to decay in sand than at sea

Trending Today

An Internet Billionaire Just Pledged $100 Million to Search for Extraterrestrial Life

More telescope time, better equipment could help scientists figure out what’s out there

Screen shot from "The Whale Warehouse - AudioVision Ep. 1" via Vimeo

Cool Finds

In L.A. There’s a Warehouse Filled with Whale Bones

A video offers a tour of the Whale Warehouse, which holds a large part of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County's marine mammal collection

New Research

The Oldest Fossilized Animal Sperm Comes From a Worm That Lived 50 Million Years Ago

The discovery points to a new way that microscopic critters might be preserved in the fossil record

New Research

What Makes Some Screams Scarier Than Others?

Shrieks of fear share sound qualities with car alarms

Silly humans, Pluto is a dog, not a planet.

Of Course Some People Think NASA's Pluto Pictures Are Fake

Or at least doctored to exclude evidence of alien life.

Scripps oceanographer Eric Terrill and BentProp founder Pat Scannon investigate the main fuselage of a TBM Avenger lost 70 years ago during a bombing mission near Palau.

Cool Finds

Divers Turn to Robots for Help Scouring the Pacific for Long-Lost WWII Soldiers

An ongoing effort to recover those missing in action teams military historians, volunteers and scientists

Visitors to a hot springs resort in Japan enjoy a wine bath.

Cool Finds

What’s the Deal With Wine Baths?

Chemists investigate the science behind the hype

An artist's rendering of what a pentaquark structure might look like.

New Research

What Is a Pentaquark and Why Are Physicists so Excited About It?

For fifty years scientists have thought they existed, and now they finally have proof

Fungus has been infecting snakes like this adorable baby garter snake

New Research

A Deadly Fungus is Eating the Scales off Snakes in the Eastern U.S.

Researchers are still not sure why the fungus, usually content to live on dead animals, is now infecting living snakes

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