Science & Technology

Visualize population densities around the world represented as geographic terrain and how those densities changed from 1900 to 1975 to 2015.

No map of the Earth is perfect because each introduces inaccuracies in the shape, size, or orientation of landmasses and oceans by trying to flatten the planet's curved surface.

During embryonic development, a major signaling protein involved in the development of the central nervous system, limbs, and other body parts is called Sonic Hedgehog, after the Sega video game character.

Earth's magnetic field can trap high-energy charged particles produced by the sun and distant cosmic events in doughnut-shaped rings called Van Allen belts.

Starfish are invertebrates—they lack a backbone—and while most exhibit pentametric radial symmetry due to having five arms radiating from a central disk, some can possess more than 40.

Since 2019, a free-floating robotic system named Astrobee has helped astronauts with routine tasks on the International Space Station.

American oceanographic cartographer Marie Tharp's discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which supported the idea that continents move over time, was initially dismissed as 'girl talk.'

When leap seconds are needed to resynchronize clocks with Earth's rotation, instead of shifting time all at once, technology companies implement a leap smear, which evenly distributes the change over a 24-hour period.

Data suggests the typical horse produces over 12 horsepower—a unit of measurement for the rate of work done that was conceived as a marketing tool to communicate steam engine performance.

A black hole with the mass of the observable universe would be larger than the observable universe, leading some theorists to suggest that we may live inside a black hole.

The term 'scientist' was coined in a 1834 book review by English polymath William Whewell, who needed an alternative to 'man of science' to describe Scottish writer Mary Somerville.

Oxygen is produced in the International Space Station from recycled water, which is split into hydrogen and oxygen gases using an electric current.

On planets in systems with two stars, such as the fictional Tatooine from 'Star Wars,' observers would see overlapping rainbows and double rainbows.

Nuclear fusion, where the nuclei of two atoms are combined, can produce near-limitless clean energy, but requires extreme conditions to kickstart because of the natural repulsion of atomic nuclei.

Listen to audio clips from Hoover, a harbor seal named after its insatiable appetite, who learned to say English phrases such as 'hello there' and 'come over here.'

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.

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.