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On August 8, 1900, at the Second International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris, David Hilbert presented 10 of 23 as-yet unsolved problems that he believed would be the “goals […] toward which the leading mathematical spirits of coming generations will strive.” He was right – though the fact that he was one of the most […]

Okay, we know that not all toilets are white – who remembers those avocado and salmon pink bathrooms suites of the UK 1970s? But the vast majority of today’s toilets are white, and this seems to be the case across the world: in private homes, offices, and public bathrooms, apart from those terrifying stainless steel […]

Forget pumpkin carving and trick or treating – the most important event of spooky season has just arrived, and it’s chock full of big wings, big ears, and some absolutely glorious puns. It’s time for the 2024 Bat Beauty Contest. If you’re unfamiliar, the Bat Beauty Contest is an annual online competition run by the […]

We’ve all been there: You’re on a date with someone, it’s maybe the second or third time you’ve met up, and everything’s going well. Then, as it’s time to part ways, the tension starts to mount. Furtive looks are shared, maybe some blushing, and eventually one of you takes the plunge – you stick your […]

Complementary studies by separate teams have explored the interactions between melting ice in the North Atlantic and the flow of a crucial ocean current. One intensifies the alarm many oceanographers have already expressed: that more rapid melting will cause a crucial part of the Gulf Stream system to slow or even stop, with disastrous consequences. […]

Women continue to be massively underrepresented across fields in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). A damning new report from UNESCO and the G20 confirms this reality, showing that even with increased awareness of the disparity and drives for change, the situation has only improved very slightly since 2005, when 19 percent of STEM jobs […]

Beaver, moose, maybe a polar bear – all distinctly Canadian, right? They’re certainly icons of the North American nation, but when it comes to evolutionary distinctiveness, these animals are by no means the “most Canadian”. It turns out, by this metric, the spiny softshell turtle is in fact Canada’s most unique terrestrial animal. In a […]

The Portal – the interactive art installation that connected New York City to Dublin earlier this year and was briefly shut down due to “inappropriate behavior” and other shenanigans (we’re looking at you, Dublin) – has been relocated from NYC to Philadelphia’s Love Park, officially known as John F. Kennedy Plaza. The Portal, which stands […]

The latest edition of the “fear study” shows that the US has become increasingly afraid and nervous over the past decade – especially when it comes to political concerns.  As part of the Chapman University Survey of American Fears, political scientists and sociologists have been tracking the greatest fears of the American population for 10 […]

High school students Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson did something in 2023 that most mathematicians had thought impossible: They discovered a way to prove Pythagoras’ theorem using trigonometry that did not depend on circular reasoning. Now, they have published their work in a peer-reviewed academic paper, while also providing another four such proofs. Pythagoras’ theorem […]

Spooky season is always a good excuse for a celebration, but did you know Halloween also occurs around the same time as an annual astronomical event? That’s right – it’s traditionally considered a cross-quarter day (although that timing is a little off from the “true” day – we’ll get into that later). Cross-quarter days are […]

Objectively speaking, there is nothing intrinsically dangerous about darkness. Sure, you might bump into things a bit more if you’re not used to the surroundings, but that’s hardly cause for a panic attack – and yet, for an estimated one in nine US adults, that’s precisely the kind of reaction it can elicit. The question […]

Issue 28 (November 2024) of CURIOUS is out now, bringing you science highlights for the month plus deep dives into intriguing topics, interviews, exclusives, diary dates, and explanations for some of Earth’s most perplexing natural phenomena and landscapes. Read Issue 28 of our digital magazine now by clicking below! Use the arrows to navigate or […]

On July 23, 1924, the editor of Scientific American, O.D. Munn, and six members of a scientific investigative committee gathered in a small room on the fourth floor of 10 Lime Street, Boston. It was hot and uncomfortable, after all, the city was experiencing a heat wave. But if there was any unease among the committee […]

Menopause: it’s a natural part of aging that affects millions of people each year, and yet there’s still plenty that we don’t know about it.  It’s widely considered to be understudied and even ignored in the majority of studies investigating the biology of aging. That’s not to say there’s no research on the subject at […]

This week, the world’s longest venomous snake, the king cobra, has been found to be four separate species, a new carbon capture design is a major step forward in removing CO2 from the air, and a new implant can detect opioid overdose, give lifesaving drugs, and even call for help. Finally, we ask a psychologist […]

The world’s rarest gemstone is made of kyawthuite, a transparent reddish-orange mineral that’s known from just one sample housed at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. It was retrieved near Mogok, Myanmar, and recognized in 2015 by the International Mineralogical Association (IMA), whose goal it is to standardize the nomenclature of the 5,000+ […]

Most people are born with 12 ribs on each side of the body, making a total of 24 ribs. Despite the prolific misconception, this is the same for men and women. This myth is often attributed to the biblical story of Eve being made from one of Adam’s ribs. One of the first people in […]

One person’s trash is another person’s treasure – and in the case of early results from an ongoing clinical trial involving the gut microbiomes of babies born by cesarean section, that treasure might just be a mixture of milk and poop. Whether or not a baby is born vaginally or by c-section is believed to […]