The Science Behind Why Some of Us Can’t Grow Big Muscles After Turning 50

There is perhaps no better way to see the absolute pinnacle of human athletic abilities than by watching the Olympics. But at the Winter Games this year – and at almost all professional sporting events – you rarely see a competitor over 40 years old and almost never see a single athlete over 50.   … Read more

Facial Recognition Plan from IRS Raises Big Concerns

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is planning to require citizens to create accounts with a private facial recognition company in order to file taxes online. The IRS is joining a growing number of federal and state agencies that have contracted … Read more

The James Webb Space Telescope’s 1st target star is in the Big Dipper. Here’s where to see it.

The James Webb Space Telescope is setting its eyes towards the Big Dipper. Although the spacecraft is still months away from beginning its official scientific observations, one particularly bright star named HD 84406 will soon be the object of JWST’s attention. “Star light, star bright … the first star Webb will see is HD 84406, … Read more

Did a taste for blood help humans grow big brains? Story isn’t so simple, study argues | Science

When it comes to killing and eating other creatures, chimpanzees—our closest relatives—have nothing on us. Animal flesh makes up much more of the average human’s diet than a chimp’s. Many scientists have long suggested our blood lust ramped up about 2 million years ago, based on the number of butchery marks found at ancient archaeological … Read more

How Big is the Sun? | Size of the Sun

The sun is the largest and the most massive object in the solar system, but it is just a medium-sized star among the hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way galaxy. This image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows the sun at 12:45 PM EDT on July 12, 2012 during an X1.4 … Read more

Big Questions about Space, Time, Neandertals, Psychedelics and Reality

What are space and time? Where do they come from? Physicists have treated them as fundamental properties of the universe, but scientists are finding intriguing evidence that they could just be expressions of something even more fundamental. Author Adam Becker, in our cover story takes us on a romp through this mind-bending research that could potentially … Read more