The origin of cyborgs

If aliens visited Earth, it seems unlikely they'd be evolved biological creatures like us

The writer behind Mindless Algorithm, George McGowan, challenges various assumptions about aliens depicted in science fiction. One of those is that aliens are, like humans, individual entities that live, age, and die. McGowan suggests that the difficulty of intergalactic travel and the aliens' technological advancements make it more likely that they'd be an advanced form of AI or digital copies of biological entities.

Writer William Gibson invented the term 'cyberspace'

The science-fiction writer coined the term in his 1982 short story "Burning Chrome" to describe "a consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts...A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding."

The history of ectogenesis and artificial wombs

While the science of artificial wombs is new, the idea goes back to a 1923 Heretics Society of the University of Cambridge lecture where an English biologist was one of the first people to propose an egg could be fertilized outside the womb. This...

My experience with biohacking

A general approach that employs technology to enhance the functioning of the human body, biohacking enthusiasts are continuously seeking new ways to optimize their performance. Martin Kremmer, an entrepreneur who became interested in the topic after experiencing burnout, explores his own experiences in biohacking his own diet and lifestyle in pursuit of a longer, healthier life.

Unpacking the famous argument in the 'Are We Living in a Computer Simulation?' paper

In 2003, philosopher Nick Bostrom published a paper in a journal arguing the technological possibility that humanity is living in a simulation. The argument, while popularly mocked (or cheered), is presented seriously in the paper. This podcast episode explores the contours of the arguments in an accessible way.

Grinding is a body modification subculture focused technological implants

Grinders seek to increase the intensity and range of body modifications to push "beyond the human norm." The movement's roots stretch back to 1998 when cybernetics professor Kevin Warwick installed an RFID chip in his arm that granted him control over external electronics and became, arguably, the world's first cyborg.

Blood evolved many times over hundreds of millions of years

The earliest evidence of a blood-like substance comes from ancient arthropods, which appear to have had copper-based blood. In the 500 million years since then, some creatures have grown to rely on other variants, such as humanity's iron-based blood.

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

'Endoevolution' refers to the Darwinian selection happening continually inside us

The term, coined by Roxanne Khamsi in her 2026 book "Beyond Inheritance: Our Ever-Mutating Cells and a New Understanding of Health" describes the idea that evolution does not just occur across generations of humans. Instead, mutated cells continuously compete with healthy ones in our bodies, with implications for our tissues and health. Khamsi says these autocorrections are essentially natural gene therapy. 

Astronauts have repaired genetic damage in space using CRISPR—a molecular tool that can make precise changes to DNA and is used in single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses.

Why extremophiles may play an important role in terraforming Mars

Possessing unique biochemicals that can detoxify extreme environments and resilience against the Martian surface that is lethal to humans, scientists are exploring whether colonies of these organisms can transform small areas of the Red Planet into future habitats for humans. Extremophiles may also be best equipped to serve as microscopic factories for the fabrication of essential polymers.

As an experiment, the first B2 mission highlighted the challenges of isolated systems

Some argue that isolation from the outside world was compromised—making the experiment a failure—when a crew member was taken from Biosphere 2 for surgery and returned hours later. This position was strengthened when it was revealed that oxygen had been pumped into the facility.

Body horror is a subgenre that uses anxieties about appearance

Made popular in the 1980s through films like “The Fly,” the body horror subgenre focuses on physical transformation and violence. It gained significant attention in 2024, thanks to the critical attention “The Substance” received, including an Academy Award nomination for best picture.

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

Critic Neil Postman argued modern technology is dystopian

Cultural critic Neil Postman argued in 1985's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" that mass media had made the dystopia of Huxley's "Brave New World" a reality. In 1992, he published "Technopoly," a wider critique of the utopian visions of technology or, as Postman calls it, "all of the machinery that takes people out of public arenas and keeps them fixed in their homes."

Protecting astronauts against space radiation

Outside the protective atmosphere of Earth, astronauts are constantly bombarded by radiation, which, among other dangers, increases the risk cancer. While those of us on Earth can mitigate the effects of similar radiation by limiting exposure,...

The Cybathlon is an international competition for assistive technology

The competition pits teams against each other in eight races targeting different innovations, such as arm prostheses, leg prostheses, and vision assistance. Participants in the Cybathlon use it to push the boundaries of technology, including brain implants and assistive software that incorporates AI.

Organoids: 3D organs grown from stem cells in the lab

An organoid is a three-dimensional construct composed of multiple cell types that originate from stem cells that can simulate the architecture and functionality of native organs. One big benefit of these lab-grown organs is that drug candidates can be tested in model systems without needing live patients.

Why don't humans hibernate?

Hibernation is a superpower in the animal world that allows certain species to time travel from difficult times to abundance. This essay in Aeon explains this helpful natural process and why humanity's technological advancements may have hindered our ability to participate in the practice. Learn about the rising interest in human hibernation as a result of modern adversity, and if it could potentially become a reality.

Where did the term ‘astronaut’ come from?

Astronaut essentially translates to space sailor, though these sailors may be referred to differently depending on their home country. For example, Russian star sailors are called cosmonauts. Though why American, European, Canadian, and Japanese...

In 2025, researchers in the UK began working on developing artificial DNA

The Synthetic Human Genome Project aims to one day construct human DNA, molecule by molecule, in the hopes of creating disease-resistant cells and synthetic chromosomes for study. However, critics warn it may be misused to create enhanced or modified humans.

Chronobiologists study the effect of time on biological cycles

Circadian rhythms were first observed in the 1700s, when French astronomer Jean-Jacques D'Ortous de Mairan put a plant in a dark room and watched it still respond to day and night cycles, setting off further studies about specific light-dark biological cycles, an area of inquiry that continues today with the human "clock proteins" at the molecular level.

The first computer virus was created by a USC doctoral candidate in 1983

A year after creating malware in a controlled experiment that multiplied until it took over all of a computer's memory, Fred Cohen went public with his research and its risks. He called the self-replicating software a "computer virus," a term Cohen's advisor, Leonard Adleman, coined to describe its infectious behavior. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

How the rise of surgical robots affects medical education

Today's medical students are training in tools their predecessors may have only dreamed of or found locked in the pages of science fiction novels. This article explores the rising popularity and use of surgical robots and how these robots are...

The history of brainwashing in America

"Brainwashing" refers to a coerced shift in worldview, often associated with cults or oppressive totalitarian governments. Though such processes are not well understood on a neurological level, they hold an outsized role in public imagination, particularly in science fiction and dystopias. This article reviews the history of the term, first popularized by Edward Hunter in 1950, and the subsequent use of the approach in pop psychology, the CIA, and more.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

The term 'cancer' is 3,000 years old

Around 400 BCE, Hippocrates is said to have named masses of cancerous cells "karkinos"—the Greek word for crab. Science and medical historian Dr. Howard Markel discusses a few hypotheses on why Hippocrates named the disease after a crab and how well cancer was understood in the ancient world.

Where do phobias come from?

Scientists say phobias are extreme version of a primitive evolutionary mechanism that tells us when danger is near or we are in a dangerous situation. A number of brain regions work in concert to trigger flight or fight responses, and with some...

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Larger animals like giraffes, elephants, and blue whales have developed a unique defense against cancer, a phenomenon known as Peto's Paradox

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

Artificial coral reefs have been 3D printed from nontoxic, biodegradable terracotta clay, which coral polyps have used as a foundation for rebuilding marine ecosystems.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.