Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano in Tonga generates huge eruption, visible from space

On Friday, the United States logged over 800,000 new cases of COVID-19 and 2,300 more COVID-19-related deaths. It capped off a week in which the nation recorded an incredible 4 million new cases over …

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin demonstrates how Republicanism works in one awful stroke

On Wednesday, incoming Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced his selection as secretary of natural resources for the state of Virginia. That selection? Andrew Wheeler.

That would be Andrew Wheeler, former …

Elon Musk's biggest space competitor isn't Bezos, it's a rocket that plays 'hungry, hungry hippo'

If asked who is the biggest rival to juvenile jackass of the year Elon Musk when it comes to his ambitions in space, most people would likely reply with this reality’s version of Lex Luthor: Amazon …

Do we add Robotpocalypse to the list of threats to humanity we created?

Literature and movies have primed us to view robots as threatening, a danger that companies counter by aggressively promoting them as useful and adorable. We’re being indoctrinated to embrace robots …

A very special Christmas star: The James Webb Space Telescope is finally about to launch

NASA and space launch firm Arianespace have confirmed a launch date of December 25, at 7:20 AM Eastern Time, for the James Webb Space Telescope. On Thursday morning, the Ariane 5 rocket, with the …

The virus is not tired of you: Fast-spreading omicron shows 'at most limited changes in severity'

Friday is another day of very mixed messages on omicron. Some hopeful results out of South Africa show the number of daily cases taking a slight drop in the Gauteng district where the variant first …

Study suggests how omicron became more contagious, and why it gives the immune system a hard time

The idea that viruses have a tendency to become weaker over time is simply not true. Smith’s “law of declining virulence” was a 19th-century construct that has been thoroughly debunked, again and …

Scientist with the best job ever studies laughter of babies, says it's all 'about the eye contact'

Developmental psychologist Caspar Addyman has the best job ever. He works to answer the age-old question: What makes babies laugh? This means Addyman spends most of his working days listening to, and …

First kidney transplant from pig to human opens door on big possibilities—and big questions

In September, surgeons at New York University Langone Health medical center carried out a two-hour operation in which they transplanted a kidney from a genetically altered pig into a human. On …

WI brewery sues school boards for indulging 'Tucker Carlson-watching zombies,' ignoring science

On Wednesday, Oct. 6, the Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC announced it would be helping lend financial support to a class-action lawsuit filed against the Waukesha School Board and the …

COVID-19 must be eliminated, not become endemic, if America is to survive

On Friday, pharmaceutical company Merck announced that they were taking their antiviral drug molnupiravir to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), hoping for a quick Emergency Use Authorization …

Booster shots work, but may not be needed when vaccines remain highly effective for most people

On Wednesday, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study from Israel that confirmed that giving a booster shot of COVID-19 vaccine to patients 60 and older greatly lowered infection rates …

We are living in the climate crisis—weather disasters are hitting 5x more often than 50 years ago

As of Tuesday, there are still over 400,000 people without power in Louisiana. The death toll for Hurricane Ida is now at 68 as the devastation is tallied from a single storm that brought floods and …

There is an antibody treatment that stops every COVID-19 variant—and possibly all future variants

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has forbidden government agencies, schools, and private businesses from requiring proof of vaccination. This applies even to cruise ships. It all seems to be part of …

DeSantis 'triples down' on fight to protect virus, $5,000 fines for schools that require vaccination

For decades, Florida schools have required vaccinations. The Florida Department of Health currently lists vaccinations against at least seven different diseases that are required for both public …

Dear traditional media: Stop repeating forced birthers' lies about basic biology

Wednesday night, the PBS News Hour’s John Yang said this in a news story about the U.S. Supreme Court’s shadow docket overturning of abortion rights by refusing to stop the Texas law, the …

The most-cited study promoting ivermectin may have been completely fabricated

Everyone wants the same thing when it comes to COVID-19: A cheap, effective, reliable treatment that can be easily administered to anyone who shows symptoms, with good assurance that they’ll quickly …

AMA warns against taking ivermectin for COVID-19, but snake venom may hold a promising treatment

Earlier this week, streaming media star and vaccine skeptic Joe Rogan said that he had tested positive for COVID-19. After this, Rogan claimed that he was being treated with a kitchen sink approach …

Killing their own followers to own the libs isn't a sick Republican joke, it's the sick truth

On Tuesday, the Bradenton Herald noticed something covered here for the last three weeks—Florida has changed how it reports deaths to paint a falsely positive picture of events in the Sunshine State. …

COVID-19 continues to burn through the Southeast, but there's a signal that it won't burn forever

On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) logged over 2,000 deaths from COVID-19 for the first time since March. With the delta variant dominant across the nation, cases were …