Calculate your estimated yearly dose of ionizing radiation

Learn about ionizing radiation and see the most radioactive places on Earth

The average person is exposed to radiation every day, though most of it is either harmless non-ionizing radiation or ionizing radiation at doses too small to significantly affect an individual. The highest doses of ionizing radiation are received by smokers due to the radioactive polonium and radioactive lead in tobacco products.

Calculate your risk of developing cancer

Hosted by the National Cancer Institute, this tool provides interactive charts that display the likelihood of dying from various causes—including cancer—based on factors like age, sex, race, and smoking status. By contextualizing cancer risk among other potential health threats, users can create custom charts.

NUKEMAP lets you model the effects of a nuclear detonation anywhere on Earth

The tool was built by Alex Wellerstein, a historian of nuclear technology at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. NUKEMAP uses declassified weapons data to calculate blast radius, thermal radiation, fallout patterns, and estimated casualties for any nuclear device dropped on any city. More than 50 million people have used it since its 2012 launch.

Determine your carbon footprint with this web tool

This tool from the Environmental Protection Agency calculates a user's carbon footprint based on their zip code, household size, and emission factors involving home energy, transportation, and water production.

Calculate your chance of success for IVF treatments

The efficacy of in vitro fertilization procedures varies widely based on age, health history, genetics, and more. This CDC calculator provides an estimate of success rates based on your personal information, relying on thousands of reported outcomes across the US.

See where the 94 nuclear reactors in the continental US are located

In 2023, these reactors—located in 53 plants across 28 states—prevented 437 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. A single fingertip-sized uranium pellet generates as much electricity as a ton of coal, enough for one household's annual electricity.

The Curies developed a way to measure radioactivity in an old medical dissecting room

Despite lacking proper laboratory conditions, Marie and Pierre built an ionization chamber and a piezoelectric quartz electrometer to measure the amount of charged particles released by radiation, with a sensitivity of ten-trillionth of an ampere. Substances with different emission rates indicated different elements.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

An annuity income calculator

This interactive calculator lets users estimate how much money they can expect in their annuity payouts, depending on factors such as how much they invest and how long they expect to be paid. It also shows how the principal will deplete over time.

The UV index measures the sun's ultraviolet radiation risk on a scale of 1 to 11+

The tool takes into account geographical location, time, elevation, and cloud coverage to help individuals plan their daily activities around the sun's peak UV exposure times, which occur from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. A value at or above 6 requires sunscreen (SPF 15+), shelter, or UPF clothing

Simulate the decay of a radioactive substance to visualize its half-life

By definition, the half-life is the amount of time it takes for half of a radioactive sample to decay. With each half-life that has elapsed, half of the starting sample is left, leaving less to decay each time. This results in the number of undecayed atoms decreasing exponentially, with less stable substances having shorter half-lives and decreasing exponentially more rapidly.

Estimate your Social Security benefits

To calculate your Social Security benefit, the government uses information such as your birthday, current earnings, future retirement date, and more. Calculate an estimation for your future Social Security monthly benefit here.

Calculate how much of your tax dollars go to each federal program based on your income, filing status, and number of children

The US had about 155.4 million emergency room visits in 2022

Of those emergency incidents, the largest share of patients were between the ages of 25 and 44 and were in the southern part of the US. More than 43 million of the visits involved injuries, including poisonings.

US macular degeneration burden is based on statistical modeling and Medicare claims

Prevalence estimates for age-related macular degeneration in the US are usually based on the Vision and Eye Health Surveillance System. Disease numbers are generated using Bayesian meta-regression (a type of statistical modeling), which pulls together information from multiple sources, including Medicare claims.

Mining of rare earth elements risks leaking radioactive wastewater

The extraction and processing of REEs requires significant amounts of water, and poorly regulated projects can contaminate groundwater with acids and heavy metals. Toxic waste spills have paused work in several US mines since the 1980s, despite growing REE demand.

The EPA budget was 0.2% of total federal spending in 2024

The EPA spent $13.7B in 2024, making it 23rd among federal agencies in total expenditures. Of that money, more than half was distributed to state environmental agencies for sustainability and environmental protection programs.

Use this calculator to find the dollar value of your mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care for your children.

Heatstroke deaths may be massively undercounted—perhaps by a factor of 10

One often-cited average estimate of annual American heat deaths—roughly 1,200 per year—is based on death certificate data, but it may be a significant undercount because heat kills through cardiovascular, kidney, and respiratory causes that are more likely to be cited on those documents. (Separate analysis that looked at data from 1999 to 2023 found that the highest number, in 2023, was 2325.)

Explore how far you've traveled through space while living on Earth

Using the "Cosmic Odometer," users can enter their birthday and learn how far they have moved through space due to the combined effects of Earth's rotation around its axis, the planet's orbit around the sun, the solar system's trajectory through the Milky Way, and the galaxy's motion through the universe.

The measles vaccine has saved an estimated 94 million lives since its introduction

Measles killed an estimated 2.6 million people globally in 1980, after the development of a vaccine but before its widespread dissemination. By 2014, that figure had dropped to an estimated 73,000.

CT scanners at airports take images across energy bands to identify baggage contents

Old X-ray scanners' inability to distinguish between water and explosives has driven strict liquid bans and longer wait times through airport security. New scanners combine multi-angle images across the energy spectrum to determine an object's density and atomic composition for improved threat detection.

Dsup protects DNA from radiation up to 3,000 times the tolerable human dose

A key component of a tardigrade’s biochemical toolkit, the damage suppressor protein is produced and binds to DNA molecules when the animal enters its dormant tun state. Dsup has provided a 50% reduction in double-strand DNA breaks in mice after exposure to X-rays.

Calculate the value of a paper savings bond

An IRS tax refund is the only way to buy a paper savings bond, but if you have an old paper savings bond you can determine its current value with this calculator. The calculator only works for paper savings bonds of Series EE, Series I, Series E, and savings notes.

What is metabolic rate?

Read this article to better understand the concept of metabolic rate, which is defined as the amount of energy expended by an organism over the course of a day. Basic metabolic rate (or BMR) is this metabolic rate at rest, during which the body only...

Review the health effects of living near oil refineries, including increased respiratory risks

An analysis of 54 studies published between 1977 and 2024 in 15 international regions found evidence that proximity to refineries increased the risks of leukemia, asthma, bronchitis, and respiratory symptoms. Several studies also identified worse cardiovascular function in children and adults living near refineries, alongside other acute and chronic health impacts.

The Richter scale was only intended to quantify Southern California earthquakes

The scale, designed to rate the energy of the largest seismic waves released by an earthquake, was calibrated to the region’s crust and mantle properties. Since the 1970s, seismologists have instead used the moment magnitude scale, which considers all waves of released energy.

See how much daily sugar substitute intake the FDA considers to be safe

The agency states in this PDF graphic that a person weighing about 132 pounds would have to consume roughly a couple dozen sweetener packets daily—or more—to reach unsafe levels of consumption. The accumulated consumption would be across all sources, including diet beverages, sugar-free candies, and actual packets added to coffee.

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

Between 10 million and 50 million people in the US develop rashes from poison ivy, poison sumac, and poison oak each year.

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

Explore what it's like inside a patient isolation unit, used in situations such as treating a patient or suspected patient with Ebola.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

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.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by more than 1.5 million Muslims each year.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.