Features on ZME Science

A Scrabble Champion Won the Spanish World Title Without Speaking a Word of Spanish

What a legend!

Why People Believe in Pseudoscience—and Why It’s So Dangerous

We’re bombarded with pseudoscience every day—from social media conspiracy theories to politicians dismissing climate change with a snowball.

Governments Are Throwing Money at Declining Birth Rates But It’s Not Working

Governments worldwide are offering cash incentives and creative policies to boost birth rates, but declining fertility trends reveal deeper societal shifts — here's why their efforts are falling short and what it means for the future.

How To Solve Any Problem Using Enrico Fermi's Back-Of-The-Envelope Math (And Some Common Sense)

Estimate anything in the world with a napkin and a pen.

Sam Altman said it was "hopeless" for smaller AIs to compete with OpenAI. DeepSeek proved him wrong

It’s hard to overstate just how impactful DeepSeek has been. In a couple of days, it rattled the entire AI industry, shattering the aura of invincibility that OpenAI (and American tech companies in general) had built around themselves. DeepSeek’s new AI is the number one most downloaded free app on the Apple Store, and it’s […]

Fluoride in water doesn't affect brain development, another study finds

A study out of Australia finds, again, that fluoride in water is not linked to lower IQ.

Who Invented Russian Roulette? How a 1937 Short Story Sparked the Deadliest "Game" in Pop Culture

Russian Roulette is deadly game that likely spawned from a work of fiction.

The Rule of 72: The Simple Math Behind Doubling Your Money

This quick mental calculation can reveal the power of compounding interest.

Why Paris Is Leaving Cars Behind for Bikes

Paris has reinvented itself as a cyclist’s paradise, moving from car-dominated streets to a city crisscrossed by bike lanes.

The Futurama Theorem: The Math Behind a Mind-Swapping Episode

The Futurama Theorem is one of the most fascinating crossovers between academia and pop culture.

The Birthday Paradox: Why a Room of Only 23 Strangers Has a 50/50 Chance of a Shared Birthday

In a room of 23 people, the odds surprise us all.

Women Didn’t Live Longer Than Men in Medieval Times. Here's Why

Bones tell the story of gender and survival in Medieval London.

The pair of jeans that sent the chess world in turmoil

Magnus Carlsen wore jeans to a chess tournament. Now the entire sport is boiling over.

Not too hot, not too cold. What’s the ideal room temperature?

The eternal struggle between family members and co-workers.

For better or worse, machine learning is shaping biology research

Machine learning tools can increase the pace of biology research and open the door to new research questions, but the benefits don’t come without risks.

The Math Behind Why Mexico’s Cartel War is a Never-Ending Nightmare

Cartels are Mexico's fifth largest employer. They are recruiting faster than the government can arrest them.

Christmas myths: The Krampus, Santa's evil twin

Survive December 5, and you just might get some presents.

Real Vs Artificial Christmas Tree: What the science says

The Great Christmas Tree Debate: Real or Artificial — Which is Better for the Planet? The answer is not as clear-cut as you may think.

Saturnalia and Christmas -- how a Pagan Roman festival paved the way for modern Christmas

Wait, the Romans invented Christmas?

The Yule Cat: Forget Santa, Embrace the Dark Side of Icelandic Christmas

Not your average cat -- or your Christmas tradition.

The Bizarre History of Mad Honey: sweetener, psychedelic, weapon of war

Handle with care — this honey bites back!

Why Are Humans the Only Species to Cry Emotional Tears?

Darwin called them "purposeless", but emotional tears have their place.

Your Brain Has A Special Set of Neurons That Only Light Up for Music

Scientists have discovered unique neurons in the brain that respond only to music.

What's a Republic, anyway? Now is a good time to learn

Republican ideals have evolved over millennia, shaping governance across the globe. Modern republics continue to adapt, but face challenges in upholding their foundational principles.

Scientists Capture the X-ray Fingerprint of a Single Atom for the First Time — And This Could Change Everything

The achievement has potential implications from medicine to materials science.

The hands of great apes tell a story about our own evolution

Take a closer look at your hands—they carry millions of years of evolutionary history, connecting you to our closest primate relatives.

The incredible fishes that wander oceans with a transparent head

They're some of the most unusual creatures in the ocean.

10 "Living Fossils" That Have Survived Mass Extinctions And Have Barely Changed in Millions of Years

Most creatures on Earth evolve constantly but these have hardly changed after millions of years.

Meet the "Ice Man" saving Himalayan farms with artificial glaciers

An engineer’s clever artificial glaciers bring water back to parched Himalayan fields.

The one type of food you need more of, according to a leading nutritionist

"The simple things they told us, like eating your vegetables first, have always been good advice, and now science is backing it up.”

The Nobel Prizes this year are an AI bonanza

Not one but two prizes went to AI research.

The Growing Menace of Space Junk: How a Minefield of Orbiting Debris Threatens Our Future in Space

Low-orbit Earth could become inoperable for spacecraft and satellites if this complacency persists, with dire consequences.

The Secret Lives of Medieval Executioners: Society’s Outcasts

Executioners upheld law and order, but their grim profession came with a heavy price.

There's way more chaos in our lives than you think. This scientist says it's empowering

We like to believe we're in control, but there's much more randomness than we’d like to think.

Do animals recognize themselves in the mirror? And what does that mean for us?

For an item that most of us use every day without much thought, mirrors can be a rich source of insight into the inner workings of our minds. Self-awareness is something we consider to be a hallmark of the human experience. It represents the ability of an individual to recognize where they begin and where […]

The Invisible Backbone of the Internet: Nearly A Million Miles of Undersea Cables Keep the World Connected — But What Happens If They Break?

The cables lying on the ocean floor power the world’s internet, but they are far from indestructible.

What makes gemstones so brilliantly colored -- spoiler alert, it's physics

In a previous color, we’ve talked about what makes things colored — the way objects absorb, reflect, or transmit light at different wavelengths. But let’s be a bit more specific. What gives gemstones colors, or rather, what changes the way they absorb and reflect light so that they come out in so many different, striking […]

The World’s Largest Musical Instrument Is a 3.5-Acre Stone Organ Hidden Inside This Virginia Cave

The Great Stalacpipe Organ transforms stalactites into a vast, natural musical instrument.

What is a waterspout and did one sink the Bayesian luxury yacht?

Are waterspouts some of Europe's most underestimated disasters?

Titanium: how we use the metal of the titans

Beyond its remarkable properties, titanium minerals also look spectacularly.

Parvovirus B19: CDC warns of new "slapped cheek disease" uptick

The disease is not typically dangerous, but in children and vulnerable people, it can damage various parts of the body.

Breathtaking Metamorphosis: The Saturniidae Moths

These moths are some of the most amazing creatures you'll see.

Geological faults: the beauty (and science) of a key geological process

This picture encapsulates the beauty of a geologic fault -- it's like someone took it from a textbook and slammed it into real life.

The Untold Story of An Ancient African Alphabet Born from a Dream

In the 19th century, a man living in present-day Liberia dreamed of the first script for his native Vai language. Today linguistic anthropologists are digging into the script’s evolution—and what the changes over the past two centuries reveal about human cognition and society.

What is the hardest language to learn as a native English speaker?

English speakers may find Mandarin, Arabic, and Japanese up to four times harder to master than Spanish or French.

Remembering the Tuskegee experiment: when rural Alabama Black men were intentionally exposed to syphilis with no treatment

It's been 50 years since one of the most unethical studies in the history of science was exposed to the public.

Face of the dollar: the story of Peter the Mint Eagle

Back in the 1830s, one bird’s nonchalant attitude won it the affection of the US Mint.

Operation Beluga -- or how a Soviet ice breaker played music to thousands of ice-trapped whales to save them from starving

Sometimes, you just need an icebreaker and some classical music to make your day better.

The Paris Olympics is the most vegetarian-friendly: 60% of options are meat-free

Paris is emphasizing sustainability and fighting the myth that you need meat for athletic performance.

These drawings were made by Onfim, a 7-year-old boy in the 13th century

The artifacts tell us a lot about life in medieval times in the area.

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