6 (Plus One) Surprising Reasons Why All Life on Earth is Doomed

We’re all doomed to die. No, that’s not teenage nihilism or Shakespearean introspection — it’s a fact of life. To illustrate this point, an estimated 99.9% of all species that have ever existed are long gone. Whether it is a plant or animal, big or small, any given species rarely survives past 15 million years. …

Study: Pooping Makes You Smarter and Better at Sports

Whether they cultivate their muscles or minds, people have always sought to be faster, stronger, better. To achieve the peak of excellence, athletes and great thinkers both have resorted to various performance boosters, from anabolic steroids to gladiator sweat. However, you don’t need to take anything to do better, whether it’s in sports or academia. …

Scientists Attempt to Save the Oceans by Dumping Artificial Whale Poop

Our oceans are delicate things. Their ecosystems are immensely complex, and even a small change in a single thing can cause a ripple effect that reverberates through the entire ocean. Such as the lack of whale poop. Indeed, whales’ gastrointestinal systems produce more than just precious (and revolting) ambergris. They also produce — surprise, surprise …

8 Odd Things Launched into Space (Intentionally or Otherwise)

Space launches are both incredibly expensive and potentially dangerous, so you’d imagine they’d be humorless, no-nonsense scientific affairs. And they are, for the most part, but the rockets may still carry something utterly unhinged. Ever since Sputnik in 1957, all manners of strange things have made it into Earth’s orbit and beyond. Some of them …