If you’ve ever tried to fall asleep with one in your room, you know they’re irritating. But in many places, mosquitoes do far more than induce itchy bumps. Thanks to their blood-sucking ways, some species of mosquito transmit diseases from one host to another—contagions like Zika virus, dengue fever, yellow…

For centuries, human beings have wondered about the possibility of other Earths orbiting distant stars. Perhaps some of these alien worlds would harbor strange forms of life or have unique and telling histories or futures. But it was only in 1995 that astronomers spotted the first planets orbiting sunlike stars…

Everyone who was once a child knows the incredible, simple joy that comes from blowing bubbles and watching an ultra-thin layer of liquid bob through the air before bursting apart. While it seems like magic when you’re a little kid, it turns out the mystery behind how bubbles work is…

Right on time, the Atlantic Ocean is waking up as we approach the peak of hurricane season. Conditions are looking more favorable for tropical development over the next couple of weeks, a far cry from the quiet, boring weather we’ve seen in the Atlantic Ocean so far this summer. It’s…

Winter and fall are great times for gadget nerds like us. It’s crummy enough outside that we can stay in and play with gadgets guilt-free. It’s also when manufacturers typically make their big announcements. But this week, Samsung showed off a bunch of new stuff, the latest version of Android…

After 11 years of lawsuits, reviews and delays by the Environmental Protection Agency, federal judges last week ordered the agency to ban chlorpyrifos, a widespread agricultural pesticide derived from a class of chemicals first used to develop World War II nerve agents. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled…

The origin of blue diamonds—some of the scarcest stones in the world—has eluded scientists for centuries. But now, some of the secrets of these ancient gemstones are coming to the surface. After studying minute bits of mineral trapped within the glimmering prisms, scientists discovered blue diamonds form much deeper down…

Cars zipped past at blistering speeds, only slowing to round the hairpin turns etched into the waterfront course in New York City. Spectators lined up at the edge of the roadway, close enough to see the drivers strain against their steering wheels. From that distance, fans could smell the burning…

Ghost particles, otherwise known as neutrinos, are literally everywhere—trillions of them, each with barely any mass at all, are passing through your body right now. But we understand very little about how these particles work. That’s an absolute shame, since they might be key to explaining some of the biggest…

Almost a thousand stone figures—each weighing tons—dot Easter Island, known also as Rapa Nui. These moai have puzzled generations of Western anthropologists over the past two centuries: how were they created, and how were they moved from the places where stone was quarried to the points on the island where…

Apple first announced that it was moving iMessage into its iCloud storage system back at its WWDC event in 2017. It sounds like a simple thing: All of your messages now sync to iCloud and sync across any device you enable, including iPhones, Macs, Apple Watches, and iPads. Before, this…

Organizing an event is stressful—first you have to figure out your guest list, then you need to pick a date that works for as many people as possible, and finally, you need to make all those potential attendees tell you whether or not they’re coming. Instead of calling everyone individually,…

Every time you send an email or text, or even look up a friend’s address on Google Maps, you rely on a digital list of your contacts. But just because you use it all the time doesn’t mean you treat it very well. Many of us let old numbers, needless…

Sometimes science simply confirms what we already know to be true. You know what I’m talking about: researchers will find evidence that losing sleep makes you cranky and bad at your job, that eating lots of vegetables is good for your gut, or that Uranus is surrounded by a noxious…

Cancer is one of the few diseases that we don’t think of as being contagious. But that’s not true if you’re a tasmanian devil. Devils are one of the very few unlucky creatures on this planet to carry a transmissible cancer, and they don’t just have one—they can contract two…

Ellen Crupi lives in Bethesda, Maryland, but works for a startup company in Minnesota. She does everything online from sales pitches to video conferences. Working at home means she doesn’t have to dress up, wear makeup, buy new work clothes or go out to lunch. When she’s not working, she…