The Question of Geophagy: Why Eat Dirt?
Scientists have three theories about why people and animals eat dirt.
Game, Saw, Conquered: Nationalism in Indonesian Video Games
Whether in cutscenes or gameplay, multi-player video games can help rewrite history or encourage an investment in national sovereignty.
We Might Have Accidentally Killed the Only Life We Ever Found on Mars Nearly 50 Years Ago
In one experiment, the Viking landers added water to Martian soil samples. That might have been a very bad idea.
1610: Dawn of the Extraterrestrial
Galileo's telescopic view of the Moon sparked a giant transformation in the way human beings thought about the natural world.
When the Government Tried to Flood the Grand Canyon
In the 1960s, the government proposed the construction of two dams in the Grand Canyon, potentially flooding much of Grand Canyon National Park.
How Rocks and Minerals Play with Light to Produce Breathtaking Colors
Rocks and minerals don’t simply reflect light. They play with it and interact with light as both a wave and a particle.
Should Environmental Policy Commodify Nature?
The White House is calling for the integration of natural capital accounting frameworks into land-use decisions, putting nature on the balance sheet.
As Militaries Adopt AI, Hype Becomes a Weapon
Few things provoke quite the same amount of anxiety as the effect AI could have on warfare.
How Strong of a Nuclear Bomb Could Humans Make?
The biggest nuclear blast in history came courtesy of Tsar Bomba. We could make something at least 100 times more powerful.
Longhorns Long Gone (And Returned)
The end of the era of so-called Texas Longhorns doesn’t seem to have been sentimentalized at the time. Why do we wax nostalgic about it now?