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April 18, 2025
Are traffic engineering decisions based on evidence-based research? Not as much as you might think. Plus, researchers captured the first confirmed video of a colossal squid swimming in its natural habitat. And, with brain-implanted devices, people with paralysis have been able to command computers to “move” virtual objects and speak for them.
12:14
Fighting Cancer With Your Own Immune System
Former president Jimmy Carter declared himself cancer-free this week as a result of—among other things—a cancer immunotherapy drug.
10:24
Pluto Comes Into Focus
Photos from the New Horizons mission reveal icy plains, craters, and mountains on Pluto.
24:37
The Best Science Books of 2015
We’re making our book list and checking it twice: It’s the Best Science Books of 2015.
11:16
A Black Hole Meal, an Ancient Peach, and New NIH Rules for Animal Experiments
A black hole spews matter after a meal, and the National Institutes of Health call for more female animals to be used in preclinical research.
7:25
Errant Satellites Provide Test Case for General Relativity
A team of physicists have repurposed two satellites launched into the wrong orbit as an experiment to test one aspect of Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
12:10
Understanding The Epidemic Of Gun Violence
After the 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, researchers push that gun violence be addressed as a public health issue.
17:27
Kurt Vonnegut in the ‘House of Magic’
“The Brothers Vonnegut” reveals how Bernard Vonnegut’s research on cloud seeding influenced his brother Kurt’s fiction.
16:48
Do-It-Yourself Liquid Smoke, and Other Kitchen Hacks
Jeff Potter, author of “Cooking for Geeks,” explains how to make sour cream, chocolate bars, rolled oats—and even liquid smoke—from scratch.
17:04
Randall Munroe’s Thousand-Word Challenge
In “Thing Explainer,” XKCD’s Randall Munroe explains nuclear power, continental drift, and the periodic table, using only the thousand most common English words.