Science & Technology

Mount Everest may be considered the tallest mountain on Earth, but the summit of Ecuador's Mount Chimborazo is more than a mile further away from Earth's center than the top of Everest.

In 2026, researchers at the University of Minnesota created the world's first synthetic cell—a cell made from non-living chemical components—that can eat, grow, divide, and compete with other cells for resources.

Find out how important you are to AI tools when they generate text responses with this tool, which estimates the weights of people's names.

Lake Sørvágsvatn sits about 32 meters (105 feet) above sea level, but the taller surrounding cliffs create an optical illusion that makes it appear to float much higher above the ocean.

In 1975, the Soviet Union fired a space cannon as part of testing a defense system that would prevent anyone from approaching and inspecting Soviet military satellites.

The world's first webcam was invented in the early 1990s by scientists at Cambridge Computer Laboratory to monitor a coffee pot for researchers working in different labs on various floors.

At any given time, there are an estimated 10 quintillion individual insects alive on Earth.

In the summer months, the Eiffel Tower grows a few millimeters and leans slightly to one side because sunlight warms the metal, causing it to expand.

If a sheet of standard printer paper could be folded 42 times, it would have the same thickness as the distance from the Earth to the moon.

Explore a digital graveyard of over 300 products, services, and devices that have been discontinued by Google, including Chromecast, Google+, and Google Goggles.

Excluding using another planet's gravity to redirect the object, it takes less energy for a spacecraft to leave the solar system than to hit the sun.

Linepithema humile is an invasive species of Argentine ant that has constructed a supercolony—an interconnected network of nests and tunnels—spanning from Portugal to Italy.

Electricity can flow indefinitely along a ring of superconducting material, which provides zero resistance to the movement of charges due to quantum effects.

In 2012, scientists purposely crashed a Boeing 727 to identify where the safest place to sit is on a plane in order to survive a belly-flop-style impact.

Hippos produce their own sunscreen in the form of a fluid containing hipposudoric and norhipposudoric acids, which absorb sunlight in the ultraviolet and visible range.

Simulations suggest that a paper airplane launched from the International Space Station would maintain its orientation and gradually descend for 3.5 days before chaotically tumbling down and burning up.

In the early 2000s, the average color of the universe was determined by averaging the visible light from 200,000 galaxies, yielding a light beige dubbed 'cosmic latte.'

Due to a local microclimate, a thunderstorm nicknamed Hector the Convector appears almost every day from September to March at around 3 pm off the northern coast of Australia.

A magnitude 25 earthquake would release enough energy to destroy the sun, while a particle of dust drifting onto a table would have a magnitude of about -15.

Through 2025, two-thirds of known exoplanets—planets that orbit stars other than the sun—have been detected via transits, where the objects cause periodic, consistent dips in their host star's brightness by passing in front of it.

Colorful objects will appear to lose their colors, starting with red, the deeper they are submerged, because water scatters light, reducing the amount available to reflect off objects.

Harmful algal blooms can occur in warm, nutrient-rich, stagnant waters and are often associated with the rapid reproduction of blue-green algae—a misnomer for cyanobacteria, not algae.

Diatomite, a sedimentary rock used as a filtration material in beer, wine, swimming pool water, motor oil, and pharmaceuticals, is formed from the fossilized shells of diatoms, a type of algae.

The Amazon rainforest is considered the 'lungs of the Earth,' but it contributes less than a quarter of the oxygen of phytoplankton—microscopic plants, algae, and bacteria capable of photosynthesis.

Explore how temperatures compare to historical averages in cities worldwide with this interactive global monitor.

Watch an animated visualization of how the Large Hadron Collider works, including how particles are accelerated through a series of machines how collision data is collected and distributed worldwide.

High-frequency sound waves have been used to brew espresso with room-temperature water and about one-fourth the energy of a traditional espresso machine, which relies on hot water and pressure.

Explore an interactive forecast of the future of the universe, from the return of Halley's Comet to the last light in the cosmos.

Cyanoacrylate, or superglue, was discovered by accident during World War II when researchers tried to create a clear plastic for precision gunsights.

Listen to audio recordings of forests from around the world, featuring birds chirping, water flowing, and wind flowing through the trees.

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current—Earth's most powerful ocean current—formed about 34 million years ago.

Explore an interactive periodic table of each element's history, properties, and uses.

Diamonds have been made from substances such as peanut butter and carbon dioxide, though they can be created from any carbon-rich material under extreme pressure and temperature.

Nanotechnology refers to the study of objects measuring 1 to 100 billionths of a meter, which has produced materials with unique properties by manipulating the arrangement of atoms.

Strands of DNA can act as biochemical Velcro and fasten two molecules together because the complementary bases that make up DNA strands bond together consistently.

Watch how seed cotton is collected and processed into cotton fibers, feed for livestock, and cooking oil.

The sun will become a red giant after it exhausts the hydrogen fuel in its core, causing gravity to collapse the core and heat it enough for the surrounding hydrogen shell to ignite, releasing enough energy to cause the star to swell.

View a ranking of the masses of fundamental particles, from the massless photon to the top quark, and a timeline of their discoveries.

Our bodies cool us down by sweating because water requires a significant amount of energy to change state from liquid to gas, making it an ideal medium for carrying thermal energy away from our bodies.

The Higgs boson is a quanta, or discrete piece, of the Higgs field, which gives elementary particles, such as quarks and electrons, mass as they travel through it.

In the 1940s, pilots flew into thunderstorms to learn about their formation and properties as part of the Thunderstorm Project, the first multi-agency meteorological study mandated by Congress.

Data centers can be kept cool by circulating fluid over plates atop high-temperature components or by submerging equipment in non-corrosive oil that does not conduct electricity.

Learn about the missions comprising the Artemis program, which aim to return humanity to the moon and develop the technology for future human space exploration.

The Academy of Lynxes—a 17th-century science academy—was co-founded by an 18-year-old whose father suspected he was associating with sorcerers and magicians.

Mangrove forests can store up to four times as much carbon as other forests and protect inland areas through complex root systems that absorb wave energy and hold mud and soil in place.

Antarctica has two adjacent ATMs installed by Wells Fargo in 1998 to serve the population of McMurdo Station, a research facility that houses up to 1,000 people.

Tom Liggett, a Bournemouth University student, sent photographic film into space using a helium balloon, producing photographs from cosmic rays—high-energy particles traveling through space at near-light speed.

The Amazon molly is an all-female organism that has been cloning itself for 100,000 years without accumulating harmful mutations.

Despite lacking a traditional nervous system, plants have specialized cells that help detect gravity, enabling them to identify which way is down to grow roots and which way is up to push shoots toward the surface.

Discover the chemistry behind smoking foods, including the types of smoking and the source of smoking flavors and colors.