Exploring bleeding edge experiments, oddities, new and bizarre dicoveries, and fact-checking conspiracy theories since 2008. No question is out of bounds and no topic is too strange for a deep dive.
# space
After decades of neglect, space agencies are starting to listen to planetary scientists interested in studying Venus. Here's why they want to explore an alien hellscape.
# tech
AI that identifies faces, vehicles, and reads handwriting is springing from computers, ready to make tedious human work obsolete. But we don't see the tedious human work that goes into training them.
# podcast
Once again, stories of military officers spotting UFOs and never getting answers to their questions are making their way through the media. Why are these tales so common?
# tech
We were told we'd be cross continents at supersonic speeds and driven by self-driving cars. But as the projects get underway, it's clear that's not really with what we'll end up.
# space
Galaxies seemingly lacking dark matter which threatened to rule out alternative ideas about what dark matter could be may actually be full of it, according to a second, in depth look.
# science
NASA reviewed predictions of how the planet should be warming generated by its GISTEMP dataset to see how accurate its models were, and the results were hardly shocking.
# science
Despite dire warnings, we may never be able to custom design humans. And if we ever learn how, we may accidentally drive ourselves into extinction if we try.
# evolution
Do we owe our ability to walk on two legs to a sudden burst of supernovae activity lasting for nearly five million years, or are researchers connecting dots that don't need to be connected?
# podcast
Far from being just a slightly bigger rocky sphere than our planet, Super-Earths are a fascinating class of worlds ranging from Earths with a few extra tons to failed seeds of gas giants.
# tech
A new artificial intelligence system called GROVER can create extremely plausible fake news stories. Why would anyone build something like this? Why, to fight fake news of course!