There's a bitcoin mine in remote Zambia

Bitcoin mining validates/adds bitcoin transactions onto the blockchain

Mining, done by a decentralized network of actors, is incredibly energy intensive, making the award of bitcoins a major incentive.

Jimmy Zhong pulled off one of the biggest bitcoin heists in history

Jimmy Zhong performed a bitcoin heist—stealing more than 51,000 BTC from Silk Road in 2012. For years, he stayed under the radar, using crypto mixers to hide his tracks. But one small mistake in 2019 led investigators straight to him.

Cryptocurrency is reshaping finance, but its environmental impact often sparks debate

Behind the scenes, mining operations consume vast amounts of energy, comparable to the emissions of small nations. What drives this surprising environmental footprint, and can the industry evolve?

The CCZ is believed to harbor trillions of dollars of valuable minerals and thousands of undiscovered species

Located between Hawaii and Mexico and spanning an area larger than the European Union, the Clarion-Clipperton Zone is the world's region with the most contracts awarded to groups seeking to extract valuable metals by collecting polymetallic nodules. Conservative estimates suggest that 21.1 billion tons of polymetallic nodules exist in this abyssal plain, but about 90% of the species in the area are unknown to scientists.

In 2025, AI detected a previously unknown geothermal reservoir

Utah-headquartered startup Zanskar Geothermal & Minerals found it beneath a part of the western Nevada desert using an AI trained on previously known blind sites—reservoirs with no visual evidence for their existence. The discovery represents the first industry-discovered blind site in more than three decades.

Data centers' electrical needs create increased water demands beyond cooling

Each query uses approximately one single-serving water bottle per conversation, but water is also used for steam cycles and cooling in power plants that generate electricity for data centers. Newer cooling methods, such as immersion cooling, where servers are submerged in fluids that don't conduct electricity, can minimize water use.

Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia hold more than 75% of the world’s supply of lithium

Despite the dependence of phones, laptops, electric cars, and other technologies on the soft, silvery-white metal for their batteries, residents of the Lithium Triangle have not seen the benefits of investments into mining this critical mineral, and have instead faced water shortages and pollution.

A 1,000 square kilometer patch of solar panels in Africa can power most of Europe

The $500 billion Desertec initiative would have constructed massive solar farms in the Sahara and expansive electrical transmission networks across continents. However, the plan was built on concentrated solar power technology, which is more expensive and less practical than photovoltaics.

Explaining deep-sea mining, including its economic benefits and potential biomedical risks

Extraction via machines sweeping the ocean floor would reduce child labor and human rights violations currently occurring in land-based operations that collect the minerals needed for modern-day electronics. However, these sweeps may kill undiscovered organisms that possess biologies from which antibiotics could be derived and destabilize deep-sea ecosystems.

Tour Brother Zhang's repair shop to see how graphics processing units are fixed

The workshop repairs 40 to 50 GPUs from across China daily, extending the life of the costly computer parts that are the lifeblood of the hardware powering AI tools. By salvaging working components of different GPUs, custom parts can be built atop printed circuit boards, including custom GPUs that manufacturers do not currently produce.

Rain-catching tubes provide new hydropower source for tropical regions

An experiment in Singapore showed that charge separation could be established by rainwater flowing through narrow tubes. The separation, which creates a voltage, could be scaled up in regions of high rainfall to provide a clean energy source.

Great Zimbabwe: the massive medieval trading hub in southern Africa

Arising during the 13th century, the Kingdom of Zimbabwe’s capital quickly grew into a central trading hub, dealing in items from across the world, before its decline in the 1400s. Great Zimbabwe had three distinct districts, each surrounded by...

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

A look at the Kidd Creek Mine in Canada, which houses the world's oldest isolated water

The mine sits on the Precambrian Canadian Shield—an ocean floor dating back 2.7 billion years. Exhibiting a musty smell, the water is 10 times saltier than seawater and offers insights into Earth's ancient seabed.

The crypto city home to biohacking experiments

The DIY nature of biohacking gives the work an entrepreneurial feel, as seen by the emergence of community labs, at-home testing kits, and corporation-backed cities that don't necessarily require government-approved testing standards. Próspera, Honduras, created by a business of the same (first) name, was born from legislation that allowed international businesses to shave off a slice of the country to establish their own micronations.

The world's largest lemon battery was made from nearly 3,000 lemons

By connecting lemons with a piece of zinc on one side and a piece of copper on the other, a team from the Royal Society of Chemistry created a fruit battery with a capacity of 2,307.8 volts.

Mark Zuckerberg owns a cattle ranch in Hawaii

Zuckerberg owns a cattle ranch on Kauai, where he says his goal is to raise the best beef in the world. Zuckerberg has said that he raises Wagyu and Angus and feeds them macadamia meal and beer, both of which are produced on the cattle ranch. In January 2024, Zuckerberg said his daughter thought his full-time job was cattle ranching.

Princeton University offers a free online bitcoin course

Want to understand bitcoin and cryptocurrencies? A free online course from Princeton University unpacks the details of bitcoin, from how it works to what distinguishes it from other currencies, to the security and anonymity associated with its use. Explore explainer videos, or take the course as a series of lessons.

Ingenuity and advanced engineering have allowed trains to overcome extreme landscapes

The Jungfrau Railway utilizes electric trains powered by hydroelectric energy to ascend the Swiss Alps, while Poland's Elbląg Canal hauls ships along cable-powered tracks driven by waterwheels. Germany's Wuppertal monorail navigates bends as it glides over a river valley, and New Mexico's Holloman High-Speed Test Track can achieve speeds of Mach 8.6 for rocket sleds.

Small modular reactors can provide nuclear power with reduced risks and logistics

Their factory-built design allows them to be quickly installed underground, reducing their exposure to future extreme weather. They can provide power to small towns and major cities with much smaller start-up costs and reduced siting requirements.

IBM helped turn Rio de Janeiro into a smart city before it hosted the World Cup

In response to the deadly floods and mudslides in 2010, Brazil and IBM developed a multimillion-dollar plan to modernize Rio's emergency management infrastructure. An operations center utilizes advanced weather forecasting, surveillance, and real-time data to surveil and respond to events such as severe storms more accurately.

Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo is considered the lightning capital of the world

Spread across 140 to 160 nights, and as many as 10 hours per night, the region where the Catatumbo River flows into the semi-enclosed bay experiences approximately 1.6 million lightning strikes annually. The frequency of strikes may originate from warm Caribbean air interacting with cooler air from the Andes.

The US government reportedly hoards 1.4 billion pounds of cheese in caves

In limestone mines said to be hundreds of feet below the ground, officials have allegedly stored surplus cheese to keep the industry afloat amid ebbs and flows in demand.

How the people behind spam text messages make money

If you've ever gotten a text message from a scammer—sometimes even just someone from an unknown number saying hello and calling you by the wrong name—you've probably wondered what they're trying to get out of you. This podcast answers that question. Hint: The answer has to do with cryptocurrency.

Dozens of US research projects focus on the zebrafish's ability to grow new retina cells

The small, striped minnow can repair its optic nerve in just under a week. Scientists are interested in hacking its regenerative capacity to grow new retina cells to treat human eye disorders, including macular degeneration. In 2020, the US National Eye Institute had nearly 80 projects focused on zebrafish.

Noise and instability made quantum computing seem out of reach for decades

Recent advances in error suppression, mitigation, and correction are allowing quantum computers to perform practical tasks that challenge classical machines. IBM’s 2016 launch of its first cloud-accessible quantum computer attracted over 22,000 users in its first month alone.

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

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

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.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

Scientists have struggled to pin down Ebola's natural reservoir species for decades, but the available evidence suggests that it's very likely fruit and insect-eating bats found in Africa.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

In 1915, workers recovered a submarine-like vessel from the Chicago River, prompting fears of German espionage

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

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.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

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.

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.

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

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

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