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They may not look like much, but coffee pods are a big problem.
While there is a full scientific consensus that homeopathy is a pseudoscience many people still believe in it.
The evidence is pilling up that fish grown in hatcheries are very different from those in the wild. A new study found that after only one generation, hatchery salmon have significant genetic changes. A fish hatchery is a “place for artificial breeding, hatching and rearing through the early life stages of animals, finfish and shellfish in […]
Almost 50% of all new wind turbines in 2015 were built in China. Considering that, it’s no surprise that the country has become the biggest producer of wind energy. But China is showing that its determination in greening its economy is real and it’s not slowing down. According to statistics released by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) on […]
A few days ago, the health minister in Colombia warned that the country is extremely vulnerable to the Zika virus that’s spreading like wildfire through South America. He was right, as it turns out. Over 2100 pregnant Colombian women are already infected, as Zika has already been confirmed in 23 countries and territories in the Americas […]
Get it together, world – the top 10 greenest countries in the world are all European! The greenest countries The 2016 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is a Yale-developed method to quantify the environmental performance of a state; it’s a measure of how ‘green’ a country is. Of course, like any index it has its pros […]
An innovative type of concrete has the potential to save lives and millions off of taxpayers' money.
The mosquito-borne Zika virus seems to have spread from Brazil to Colombia, as more than 13,500 people are already infected.
The 62 richest people in the world are worth as much as the poorest 3.5 billion people in the world.
Denmark's wind turbines set a spectacular world record as they alone generated over 42 percent of domestic electricity use in 2015 - the most ever done by any country.
The world's largest food and water producer will be sued for allegations that it used child slaves to harvest cocoa beads in the Ivory Coast in Africa.
The two largest cities in Italy have taken drastic measures as pollution levels continue to rise and smog builds up.
As China’s cities struggle with smog more and more, one man has started an interesting project to raise awareness: he wandered the streets of Beijing with a vacuum cleaner gathering smog and turned it into a brick. Meet “Nut Brother,” a 34-year-old artist and activist from Shenzhen. Of course, he understands vacuuming smog will do nothing to change […]
There’s a good chance that what you know about Crime Scene Investigation comes from movie – but there are actually quite many differences between the two. Many of the things you see in the series are not done at all in real life, and sometimes, real life science goes one step ahead of the movies. […]
Improvements in aircraft design, air traffic management and changes to airline operations could effectively slash US airline emissions by as much as 50%.
Unfortunately, stories of animals becoming endangered are way more common than the reverse, but perhaps this makes it even more important to celebrate the success we do have.
When you're listening to music, it's not just your ears that are reacting to it, your eyes feel it too.
The collapse of two dams at a Brazilian mine spells an absolute catastrophe, with effects that could haunt Brazil for years to come.
It's still not clear why this happened, but one of the most likely explanations is a rare phenomenon, a "contagious" panic spread.
A single energy drink can alter your health significantly, and consuming energy drinks regularly can be absolutely devastating.
As anyone who’s visited a big city knows, few things are more annoying than being stuck behind meandering tourists when you’re trying to get somewhere fast. Now, the British city of Liverpool has come up with an ingenious solution: fast walking lanes. I often complain that crowded sidewalks are too difficult to navigate: you’ve got […]
The Scottish government announced that it approved the construction of UK's first, and the world's largest floating offshore wind farm.
It was exciting at first when Russia announced that six female astronauts would live in a spacecraft in Moscow for eight days, but it went downhill fast.
Sprocket the cat has been fitted with an improvised 3D printed leg brace which has a good chance of saving his leg from amputation. Sprocket, who is just younger than 1 year old, has had his share of misfortunes. He was lucky to survive being hit by a car, but his leg was shattered. He managed […]
When the Scottish government introduced a 5 pence tax for plastic bags, they were expecting a significant reduction, but even they weren't expecting such a big success.
A team of students in Canada invented a cheap, portable cooling device that doesn't need any electricity.
Covering your body up with sunscreen may protect you against the Sun, but it’s also threatening the world’s coral reefs, a new study found. University of Central Florida professor and diving enthusiast John Fauth and his team found that oxybenzone, a common UV-filtering compound, is in high concentrations in the waters around Hawaii and the Caribbean, two […]
The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority recently unveiled a $470 million waste-to-energy system that converts solid sludge (we generally call that human poop) to clean energy.
By now, it's almost a statistical certainty: in January 2016, we will say that 2015 was the warmest year on record; for the moment, we can clearly say that this September was the hottest on record.
Sure, we’ve all heard of Egypt’s pyramids, but have you heard of Sudan’s pyramids? Well, you really should have – they’ve survived in the African desert for 3,000 years, and they’re absolutely spectacular, as we can all see, thanks to this National Geographic drone footage. These pyramids were built by Nubians, the rulers of the ancient […]
Drivers and passengers who light one up while kids are in the car now face fines in England in Wales, in an attempt to curve down the effects of passive smoking.
A new study conducted on medical consumption of cannabis came up with some good news, and some bad news: for starters, while there were some adverse effects on consumers, no serious effects were reported. However, the reduction in pain also seems to be very small.
California is currently experiencing its worst drought in over a millennium. Trillions of gallons of underground waters were lost in 2013 alone, and things are not looking up. Now, a new study has found that not even giant sequoias, majestic trees that have been living for centuries, are safe from the effects of this drought.
New research suggests that simply fidgeting around could counter some of the effects of sitting down for too long.
Americans are sending much more trash to landfills than federal agencies estimated - twice as much, according to a new study.
Usually, we have to use all sorts of disinfectants, soaps and detergents to scrub away smudge, be it sticky, oozy or greasy. This is not only annoying during housekeeping, but also following medical procedures when instruments have to be cleaned. Researchers at University of Southampton have been working for several years on a different kind high tech solution. They developed a gun-shaped device called the StarStream equipped with a special nozzle that injects water bombarded with ultrasound waves. The mix is so powerful that virtually any kind contamination can be removed.
Eight trillion microbeads are polluting the US waters every day. As the plastic beads are very small, they breach through the water filtration systems, affecting wildlife and ultimately, humans. The main culprit for this microbead invasion is the cosmetics industry, where the particles are used as exfoliating agents and in toothpastes.
After years of analyzing and reclassifying some 2.3 million species, a group of international researchers from eleven institutions were able to create the most advanced and up to date tree of life. This all inclusive tree is actually pieced together by compiling thousands of other, smaller trees.
The Netherlands has joined the list of European countries that have banned wild animals from their circuses. The Netherlands will be prohibiting the use of all wild animals for performance (except performance zoos).
Bee numbers have been dropping at alarming rates, and the growing consensus seem to be that only limiting pesticide use (especially for some pesticides) can save them. Now, a US court overturned federal approval for a new formulation called sulfoxaflor, basically banning the pesticide.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those who religiously make their bed every day in cleanliness and order... and the rest of us. If you're in the latter group, then I've got some good news: keeping your bed messy might be good for your health.
A French court upheld on Thursday a 2012 ruling in which Monsanto was found guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer who suffered from neurological problems after inhaling the U.S. company’s Lasso weedkiller. Alachlor is an herbicide, the second most widely used herbicide in the United States; it’s been banned in Europe since 2006, but in 2004, […]
Did you notice something strange about this July? It was hot! Sure, July is supposed to be hot (at least for most of the world), but even by July standards it was hot. If you too have felt like this, you weren’t imagining things: the NOAA recently announced that this July was the hottest month […]
It’s big, it’s beautiful… and it reeks. Amorphophallus titanum, more commonly known as the corpse flower, is the flowering plant with the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world, and it often requires over 7 years to bloom. For this particular flower in Denver, it took 15. The flower will not only delight visitors with its unique look, […]
The Komodo Dragon Chilli doesn’t look like much; it’s pretty small, reddish (but not very bright) and a bit shriveled; but this pepper measures 1.4 million Scoville units – the official measure of chilli potency. Yes, that’s a lot. “Do not consume whole,” reads the mildly unnerving warning label on the packet. “Do not touch without gloves.” The […]
A female gray wolf and a male brown bear were spotted every day for ten consecutive days, spending time together, playing and even sharing food. “It’s very unusual to see a bear and a wolf getting on like this” says Finnish photographer Lassi Rautiainen, 56, who took these surprising photos. From what I could find, […]
Green tea is one of those things that’s really healthy for you, but its health benefits have been greatly exaggerated; one of the things which has been consistently reported about green tea is that it helps you lose weight, but scientists didn’t know how (or if) this happens. Now, a team from Poland believe they’ve […]
Food waste is a growing problem throughout the world; on one hand, we've got so many people starving or living in food insecurity, and on the other hand, in places like Western Europe or the US people are wasting almost 50% of what they eat. It seems rational to find ways to send the excess food to the places where it's most needed, but that doesn't happen nearly as much as it should. With that in mind, people in Galdakao, Spain, took initiative.
Smoking is bad. We’re way past the point of discussing that one; it’s bad for your health, it’s bad for the ones around you, and it’s bad for the environment. Cigarette filters are made from thousands of polymer chains of cellulose acetate; once discarded into the environment, these filters create a huge waste problem. Cigarette […]
Nabire was a 31-year-old Northern White Rhino from the Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic. She suffered from uterine cysts, which made it impossible for her to breed naturally, and ultimately, one of those cysts brought her demise. She was also one of the last 5 white rhinos on the Earth.
