We’ve all heard of donating your body to science, but what does it really mean? Let’s talk about what happens when you give your body to further medical research and education. (We won’t be discussing donation of individual organs or tissues, which is covered here.)
Content warning: There are some potentially disturbing images of dead bodies throughout this story.
Continue reading What to Know About Donating Your Body to Science
One November night each year, beneath the full moon, more than 130 species of corals simultaneously spawn in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Some corals spew plumes of sperm, smoldering like underwater volcanoes. Others produce eggs. But most release both eggs and sperm, packed together in round, buoyant bundles as small as peppercorns and blushed in shades of pink, orange, and yellow.
We’re all clamoring to get into space these days, but lost in our excitement to fly to the Moon and colonize Mars is a brutal truth: the final frontier is a cold, inhospitable wasteland that’ll kill you at the first opportunity it gets. Astronauts already know this, but for the rest of us, here are just a few of the potentially lethal dangers faced by spacefaring pioneers.
The gene-editing technique CRISPR is often touted as an eventual cure-all for all that ails us, from fatal genetic diseases to food shortages. But when it comes to disease, it’s likely that it will have the most impact on disorders caused by mutations in one single gene. New research published this week in the Journal of Clinical Investigation suggests that Huntington’s Disease may be a good candidate for a CRISPR cure.
Continue reading Scientists Used CRISPR to Reverse Huntington’s Disease in Mice
Humanity hasn’t done a ton of good in our short stint on Earth, though we’ve definitely succeeded at turning this planet into a trash pit of despair. Today, researchers from NASA’s Kepler space telescope team announced we might get to bring our garbage party to another planet—perhaps a bunch of them.
Continue reading NASA Finds 10 More Planets Humanity Might Be Able to Ruin Next
Yikes, is it ever gonna be hot in the western United States this week. The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning for Arizona, Nevada, and parts of California, where temperatures are expected to reach as high as 122 degrees F (50 C). State and local officials are asking people to take the necessary precautions.
Continue reading The Southwest US Is About to Get Torched by a Brutal Heat Wave
This has been a huge year for finding specimens in amber, from bird wings to dinosaur feathers to this ugly-ass bug. But this new finding might be the best one yet: a nearly complete 99-million-year-old baby bird.
Continue reading Scientists Find 100 Million-Year-Old, Nearly Complete Baby Bird Trapped in Amber
