The Cambrian Era: Life’s Prototype Stage
The Cambrian Explosion was a sudden proliferation of complex life forms in the early days of Earth, which created some of the most bizarre forms of life the would would ever see.
The Cambrian Explosion was a sudden proliferation of complex life forms in the early days of Earth, which created some of the most bizarre forms of life the would would ever see.
It took humans 10,000 years to go from hunter-gatherers to world domination. Considering the vastness of time that humans and life have been on Earth, could this have happened once before?
This question was put forth by Adam Frank and Gavin Schmidt in their paper titled The Silurian Hypothesis, where they tried to figure out what in the geologic record would be a sign of a previous industrial civilization. It brings up a lot of questions and makes you deal with the weight of deep time, as well as the fleeting nature of history.
As weird as it sounds, there are dozens of stories of animals, especially toads, found in rocks. Can this really be real? Because nature has developed some amazing survival strategies and there are creatures that can survive being frozen or entombed for long periods.
In this video, we explore the story of Old Rip, the horned frog that survived being locked in a time capsule for 30 years, and examine tardigrades, which might be living on the moon right now.
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, or OTEC, takes advantage of the sun’s heating of the ocean to produce clean energy. It’s pretty cool.
2020 has been a pretty terrible year. We’re all feeling the stress. But when you look back through the hard times in history, you find plenty of reasons to be hopeful. Here we look at tragic moments in history and how they brought about positive change
Every year, the world produces over 40 million tons of e-waste; discarded electronic components that are filled with valuable metals and thousands of harmful toxins. It’s quickly becoming a looming disaster.
If you have phones, tablets, laptops, or any other gadgets you need to get rid of, take the extra steps to do so responsibly. Here are some resources to help with that:
Music is a universal language. It kind-of makes us human. But why? Why does every culture around the world understand music? The answer may lie in what it does in our brains.
From mood regulation to immune system support, listening to music has measurable physiological effects on us. And learning to play music creates real differences in our brain structures that improve cognitive performance in several areas.
Some even argue that the development of music thousands of years ago shaped our species into what we are today, so let’s take a look at music, the most human thing we do.
Space Tourism has been happening for 25 years, but it’s about to become a lot more common. And that’s a big deal in more ways than you think.
With the launch of the Crew Dragon, we have entered a new era of space travel, including multiple rides to space. This will grow the need for astronauts. Want to be one of them? Here’s how.
Eyeball planets are strange worlds where one side faces their star at all times, but they might actually be a good candidate for life, and a place we may find refuge in the far future.
Also, there may be a lot more of them out there than we think. So let’s talk about these strange places in the universe.