The hit show (and video game) "Last of Us" was inspired partly by real-life species of fungi that have been known to turn ants into zombies. Spores of the Cordyceps fungi are capable of penetrating the exoskeletons of arthropods, after which they break into enzymes and proliferate within the body. The fungal cells then hack the ant's nervous system and trigger compulsive climbing.
Since the time our ancient human relatives began using stone tools to perform tasks, humans have harnessed scientific knowledge and new technologies to advance our ability to feed ourselves, increase our health, expand the boundaries of our knowledge, and much more.
From artificial intelligence and quantum computing, to optimizing the human body in pursuit of a long and healthy life, and much more—learn about these topics and more with our smart-but-digestible overviews and expert-curated resources.
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The general theory of relativity predicts the existence of wormholes, hypothetical structures allowing time travel via the curvature of spacetime. Massive objects bend spacetime with their gravitational pull; with a large enough object, the so-called fabric of spacetime could bend enough to connect two distinct spacetime regions. Watch as pop scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic Chuck Nice explore this wild idea in this entertaining video.
Like the Hubble Telescope, the Webb travels through space in a stable orbit; unlike Hubble, it isn't orbiting around Earth. In fact, the Webb is orbiting around the sun, but in a way that allows it to always be in line with the Earth. While difficult to conceptualize, this visualization shows both the real-time position of the telescope and traces its orbital trajectory relative to our planet.
Humankind's imagination has long been captured by space, what lies beyond our solar system, and what its nature is. At the same time, the sheer enormity of the universe escapes our ability to conceive of its scale. This interactive provides an intuitive sense of how small we are, from a single astronaut to the Milky Way and beyond.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
CRISPR is a revolutionary gene-editing technology already making real-world impact in helping treat a number of diseases and conditions. It works by snipping out bad genetic code and repairing or replacing it with correct sequences. But what does this really mean? This simulation provides a microscopic view of what’s happening the molecular level to help visualize the complex science in a simple way.
Quanta Magazine
It may sound like science fiction, but a number of theoretical physicists have argued our universe is shaped like a bubble, expanding into higher dimensional space. In an extra twist, surrounding our modest blob may be an infinite number of other universes, bubbling up in their own right. Untestable but fun to think about—what happens when and if these were to collide?
In Event of Moon Disaster
With current deepfake technology, we can create footage of an alternate reality where humankind’s giant leap beyond Earth’s edge fell short. As Apollo 11 astronauts prepared for their journey to the moon, two versions of a speech were drafted for President Richard Nixon; one to deliver upon the astronauts’ success and another to comfort listeners should the mission fail. You can now listen to the contingency speech thanks to deep machine learning.
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