Latest Articles

Mesmerizing real-time map of the world’s planes makes air travel look like a fungal infection

Eugh, what’s that swarming all over the surface of the planet? It looks like an insect horde, or maybe some kind of crawling fungus, but no, it’s just us in our flying machines. It’s simultaneously kind of gross and super-fascinating. PlaneFinder tracks every flight in the air at any given moment, in as close to […]

World’s oldest message in a bottle has been found in Scotland

In 1914, a Scottish scientist named Captain C. Hunter Brown dropped 1,890 bottles in the North Sea as part of a science experiment. So far 315 of these bottles have been found, the most recent one last week by a Scottish fisherman named Andrew Leaper. At 98 years old, it’s the world’s oldest message in a […]

Umbra’s second helpings: Green Jell-O shots [VIDEO]

A reader wonders whether to put her jigglers in paper or plastic cups. Umbra serves up a whole trayful of ways you can make your shots more earth-friendly.

Baby steps: Why Obama’s nod to climate change could pay off

Obama's call for climate action and public shaming of GOP deniers in his convention speech last night was more than just lip service: It highlighted a pragmatic approach that could win votes in November.

This new bike grows when your kid grows

In response to the pesky but unavoidable fact that children tend to grow over time, Spanish bike company Orbea has designed a child’s bicycle that grows with them.

Saudi Arabia may be a net oil importer by 2030

The decline in exports from our third-largest source of imported oil has huge implications for the U.S.

Detroit is building the world’s longest hopscotch course (4.2 miles!)

Two Detroit organizations, Wedge Detroit and Imagine Detroit Together, are planning the World’s Longest Hopscotch Course — 4.2 miles of chalky, colorful joy. As part of the Detroit Design Festival, they’re going to break out the paint, chalk, and knee pads on September 19, draw until September 22, and then recruit 30 volunteers to add […]

Our constantly warming summers, animated

Animated data from NASA clearly shows how temperatures are rising.

Middle schoolers convince L.A. school district to ban styrofoam

Anyone who thinks that kids don’t care about anything but eating uncooked ramen and playing video games clearly underestimated the kids of Thomas Starr King Middle School in Los Angeles. Their interests include uncooked ramen, playing video games, building a tower of styrofoam, and getting so grossed out by it that they launch a letter-writing […]

The Amazon rainforest’s clouds may come from mushrooms

I have not ever visited the Amazon, but in my imagination, it is populated by some serious, colorful, amazing fungi, all of which will either kill you or get you extremely high. But a new paper in Science found that the rainforest’s mushroom could have another vital purpose: producing a motherlode of potassium that helps […]