Antibiotic Resistance in Germs Has Doubled in the Past 20 Years
There are so many things to worry about these days, but if you’re a germophobe (like my husband) or someone obsessed with the idea that we’re all going to die in a pandemic (like me), then you’ve probably spent at least some time wondering what’s going to happen when antibiotics stop being widely effective. I...
This Beekeeper Turned Thieving Bears into (Unpaid) Honey-Tasters
If you’re a person of a certain age who grew up with a television and a soul, then there’s a good chance the characters from Winnie the Pooh are near and dear to your heart. Which also means that you’ve been aware for basically your whole life that bears really, really love honey. Like Pooh,...
The Infamous Berserker Vikings Were All Probably on Drugs – And Scientists Think They Know Which One
If you’re not familiar with the fierce, often naked, and always crazy berserker warriors, well…they are the reason we say that someone “went berserk.” They struck fear into pretty much everyone during the Viking Age, and though scientists have always assumed they used some kind of mind-altering substance to reach the savage, trance-like state that...
New Scam Uses a Real Text from Your Bank to Trick You into Giving up Your Information
Scams are everywhere these days. My phone rings a million times a day with calls from numbers I don’t know, ones that pop up as “telemarketer” and “possible scam,” and it’s annoying as heck. And if it keeps getting harder and harder to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not, pretty much everyone...
For the First Time, Researchers Have Proven a Way to Lucid Dream
Dreaming is just part of life, but for people who have trouble achieving restful sleep, or people who regularly experience frightening disturbances like nightmares or night terrors, it can present a real problem. Which is one reason people have been studying dreaming – particularly how to induce lucid dreaming, a state in which the dreamer...
20 Pretty Epic Photoshop Battles and Their Winners
The internet is good for lots of things, and while there are many instances in which photoshopping can be used for nefarious purposes, these 20 are not that. Instead, people are using their mad skills to make the rest of us laugh. If you ask me, that’s a noble cause. 20. I can’t stop staring...
The Science Behind Your Morning Trip to the Loo
Morning chores. Daily constitutional. Whatever you call it, many of us head to the bathroom to take care of it first thing in the morning (or at least, after your morning coffee). And it turns out there’s a reason that many of us get the urge at the start of the day – it’s science....
These 20 Companies Produce over 1/3 of the World’s Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions
You might have heard that climate change is going to eventually – like, not that far into the future – destroy the earth and everything and everyone we hold dear. Or something like that, anyway. Many people and governments and companies around the world are doing their best to mitigate some of the effects their...
This Giant Ocean Cleaning Device Actually Removes Plastic Waste from the Water
In case you’re unaware (or you’ve just tried to forget), there is a giant swath of floating garbage (we’re talking twice the size of Texas) in the Pacific called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Thousands of tons of plastic debris is brought together by swirling ocean currents and kept in place by those same forces....
Mom Writes Open Letter to the Man Who Shamed Her for Looking at Her Phone Instead of Her Kids
Parenting is a hard gig, and most of us are genuinely doing our best. If you see people out and about with their kids, the truth is that you’re only getting a snapshot of their day – and their lives – so if you have an opinion about what you glimpse in that moment, you’re...
14 Things You Might Not Know About “I Love Lucy”
Even though I Love Lucy is like, really old and filmed in black and white and everything, you just can’t deny that it’s still ridiculously funny. When you’re a great comedienne like Lucille Ball, it doesn’t matter how many years have passed since you performed – that shizz transcends time and space. So whether you’re...
How the Earth Got Its Name
Filed under: things you probably never thought about until now… It’s pretty obvious, especially if you’ve ever read any Greek and Roman mythology, how most of the planets (Mercury, Mars, Venus, Saturn, and the rest) in our solar system got their names, but what about Earth? There’s no Roman or Greek god named Earth, I’m...
4 Little Words That Experts Say Can Double Your Chances of Getting What You Want from Someone
Some people are more comfortable with asking for help than others, but the fact of the matter is, we all have to do it sometimes. And if you have to communicate with another human being and ask for something, it’s much better to maximize your chances of getting what you need out of the whole...
Meet the Air-Breathing Snakehead Fish That’s Invading Georgia
If you’re wondering what it’s going to look like when nature finally rises up to finish off human beings once and for all, well, this air-breathing fish that’s able to trade water for land seems like a good candidate. It’s called the Northern Snakehead, and wildlife officials in Georgia are advising residents to kill them...
Understanding the Many-Worlds Theory, Which Says There Are Infinite Yous
Physics is complicated, and quantum theory is especially complicated. Many of the concepts belonging to the world of quantum mechanics won’t be easily (or ever) grasped by untrained minds, but the Many-Worlds theory isn’t that hard to understand – at least on the surface. It’s the idea that the reality and timeline we’re living in is...