Chicago is Sinking While Canada is Rising

May 24, 2004
We know that Venice and New Orleans are sinking?but Chicago? It turns out that melting Canadian glaciers are causing the land around Chicago to sink.The ground underneath the city is sinking at less than an inch a year, but this... continued

Smoking: Cutting Back Doesn?t Help

May 24, 2004
Most smokers find it much easier to cut down their number of cigarettes a day than they do to quit smoking entirely. Now scientists know why: they're actually still getting the same amount of nicotine and cancer-causing agents because they've... continued

The Satisfaction of Making Money

May 24, 2004
A new study shows that people who inherit their money (or win it in the lottery) instead of working for it don?t get as much happiness from it. Behavioral scientist Greg Berns compared the brain activity of people playing two... continued

Eureka!

May 23, 2004
There?s a certain type of sudden realization that cartoonists often portray with a light bulb going on over the head?the "Eureka!" experience. What?s going on inside our brains when this happens? Mark Jung-Beeman says this happens "when you need to... continued

Climate Change Makes World a Duller Place

May 23, 2004
Climate change will affect the world's poor more drastically than rich nations, but the rich will suffer too. For all of us, the world will become a much duller place. Many of the impacts of global warming are not life-threatening... continued

Code May Reveal Location of Grail

May 23, 2004
The experts who broke the Nazi's secret codes are trying to decipher the mysterious 10-letter inscription D.O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V.M. on an 18th-century monument at an English country estate. Legends say it reveals the location of the Holy Grail. Jill Lawless writes that... continued

UFO Wave Continues

May 21, 2004
Tommy Woodard took a digital photo in Provo, Utah that appears to be a UFO hovering over some trees. He was taking photos in Provo Canyon on Tuesday while scouting for a possible film location. He didn't notice anything unusual... continued

Space Poop

May 21, 2004
A vital but unasked question is: what happens to human waste in space? Right now, astronauts bring it back home with them, but on longer space voyages, other solutions will be needed. This will become more important in the future,... continued

Vatican Astronomy

May 21, 2004
People are often surprised to find out that the Vatican owns an observatory in Tucson, Arizona. They originally had a telescope in Rome, but the growing population made the sky too bright for astronomical observations. Jesuit astronomer Guy Consolmagno says,... continued

Thank China for Spam

May 20, 2004
We get many low cost imports from China, and one of these is computer spam. When internet researchers tracked spam messages, they found that 71% of them come from China. Gideon Mantel, who tracks e-mail traffic, says most of those... continued