News
Snowed in? Watch albatrosses nest on a sunny Pacific island instead
1+ hour, 41+ min ago (273+ words) Published Jan 25, 2026 10:18 AM EST While winter is raging in an unusually large swath of the United States, the weather is balmy for the birds nesting on the Pacific Ocean's Midway Atoll. As many as 75,000 pairs of Laysan albatrosses (or m'l…...
Should you eat invasive species? We asked an ecologist.
3+ hour, 59+ min ago (594+ words) Published Jan 25, 2026 8:00 AM EST Image: ALEAIMAGE/ Getty Images "By definition, invasive species are harmful in some regard," says Jacob Barney, a professor of invasive plant ecology at Virginia Tech University. So when we eat them, he adds, "we turn that…...
How to stop annoying spam calls
1+ day, 3+ hour ago (694+ words) Published Jan 24, 2026 1:00 PM EST Spam calls are the word, a waste of your time and a threat to your privacy and security. Unfortunately, they can be very effective and profitable for the scammers on the other end, which is why…...
Perplexing blue button jelly looks like something out of 'Lord of the Rings"
1+ day, 6+ hour ago (370+ words) Published Jan 24, 2026 10:13 AM EST At first glance, it looks like an alien eye'a gorgeous blue iris around a carmel-colored pupil, thick eyelashes radiating out like sun rays. The reddish/orange center looks a bit like the Eye of Sauron, but…...
This AI thinks it's the 1800s
1+ day, 8+ hour ago (374+ words) Published Jan 24, 2026 8:00 AM EST Adam Mastroianni, writing in his newsletter Experimental History, put this elegantly: "If you booted up a super-smart AI in ancient Greece, fed it all human knowledge, and asked it how to land on the moon, it…...
Stingray-inspired robot cracks the mystery of how rays swim
1+ day, 19+ hour ago (147+ words) Published Jan 23, 2026 4:35 PM EST The robotic fin study was published this week in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. "This wasn't what we expected," Zhu said in a UCR blog post. "Instead of gaining extra lift near the ground,…...
It's not in your head. Fear drives decision making.
2+ day, 1+ hour ago (303+ words) Published Jan 23, 2026 10:52 AM EST We're all guilty of putting off that big decision because our brains can't stop focusing on potential negative outcomes. Dread shapes our decision making and new research published in the journal Cognitive Science explores why spinning…...
Halley's comet may need a new, medieval name
2+ day, 2+ hour ago (161+ words) Published Jan 23, 2026 2:51 PM EST King William should have seen his demise coming, according to the medieval omen experts of his era. Halley's comet appeared not long after he assumed the throne, and everyone at the time knew such cosmic sightings…...
Build and run websites with lifetime hosting for $19.99
2+ day, 4+ hour ago (324+ words) Published Jan 23, 2026 7:00 AM EST TL;DR:Hostnirvana's lifetime website hostingis $19.99 (reg. $99), an 80 percent discount that covers SSD storage, free SSL, a built-in CDN, and tools for WordPress and online stores. Getting a site online shouldn't mean managing endless add-ons or…...
Forgotten, priceless medieval book found in school library
2+ day, 5+ hour ago (539+ words) Published Jan 23, 2026 11:52 AM EST Credit: University of Cambridge For generations, a misidentified medieval manuscript was hidden in a 474-year-old English boarding school's library. After a careful new analysis, a medieval literature researcher can confirm the manuscript is actually the oldest…...