fun facts

Seeing natural selection in action, human edition.

“When the Black Death struck Europe in 1348, the bacterial infection killed large swaths of people across the continent, driving the strongest pulse of natural selection yet measured in humans, the new study found.” | learn more

under the microscope

New technique kills tumors with sound waves.

This is an incredible development and it’s already in human trials. “The new treatment is called “histotripsy,” and it noninvasively directs ultrasound waves so that the target tissue is mechanically destroyed — and with millimeter precision. This novel technique is […]

fun facts

No one can figure out how eels have sex.

“From Ancient Greece to the 20th century, Aristotle, Freud, and numerous other scholars were all looking for the same thing: eel testicles. Freshwater eels could be found in rivers across Europe, but no one had ever seen them mate and […]

fun facts

Genes mirror geography within Europe

These researchers did a genetic analysis of 1,387 Europeans and plotted them on a chart that looks a lot like a map of Europe. If anyone can explain Principal Component Analysis of genomes to me, I’d be eager to listen. | learn […]