If you are reading this, you are probably not alone. Most people on Earth are habitats for mites that spend the majority of their brief lives burrowed, head-first, in our hair follicles, primarily of the face. In fact, humans are the only habitat for Demodex folliculorum. They are ...

There was water on Mars as early as 4.45 billion years ago, just a short time after the planet formed from the leftover dust of the growing Sun. The evidence? A tiny grain of zircon, smaller than the width of a human hair, with minerals trapped inside that could only have formed in the ...

A rock on Mars spilled a surprising yellow treasure after Curiosity accidentally cracked through its unremarkable exterior. When the rover rolled its 899-kilogram (1,982-pound) body over the rock back in May, the rock broke open, revealing yellow crystals of elemental sulfur: brimstone. ...

Picture yourself sinking, slowly, beneath the waves. As you fall, the Sun becomes smaller, and dimmer, and dimmer still. The cold waters crush in around you as the pressure increases. Now you're in complete darkness, so deep that the sunlight can't reach you. Then, astonishingly, you see a ...

Off the coast of Chile and Peru, along the entire western length of South America, the seafloor takes a sharp, steep plunge deep into the Pacific Ocean. Known as the Chile margin, the region is defined by three tectonic plates sliding underneath the continental plate of South America. ...

If you've ever thought to yourself, "Gee I sure would like to see some vampire bats on treadmills," then do we have the science for you. That's exactly what a team of scientists has done, and it's not because little Vladi needed to get his chiropteran steps in. Rather, the new ...

The constant ebb and flow of hormones that guide the menstrual cycle don't just affect reproductive anatomy. They also reshape the brain, and a study has given us insight into how this happens. Led by neuroscientists Elizabeth Rizor and Viktoriya Babenko of the University of ...

"They took a dead man and cast him into the well, and then filled it up with stones." So declares the 800-year-old Norse Sverris Saga, an accounting of the rise and reign of King Sverre Sigurdsson, who went on to rule Norway from 1184 until his death in 1202 CE. Now, thanks to the ...

In the outer Solar System, far from the light and warmth of the Sun, things can get a little… hinky. There, clusters of rocks have been orbiting in weird loops that some astronomers have attributed to the presence of a large, unseen planet lurking on the Solar System's fringes. So far, ...

A ruined building in Kafr El Sheikh was where ancient Egyptians once stood, gazing at the stars above. More than 2,500 years ago, the building constituted the largest astronomical observatory known in Egypt in the 6th century BCE, part of what we now call the Temple of the Pharaohs in the ...

The body is pretty good at repairing itself, but some parts of our anatomy struggle to bounce back after an injury. One such material is cartilage – the spongy yet firm connective tissue that keeps our bones from rubbing and jarring against each other. Over time, the translucent or ...

Every now and again, our planet ponies up a fossil so spectacular that almost all you can do is gape in wonder. Sometimes those fossils are the magnificent remains that once trod Earth's surface with thunderous feet. Sometimes, they are mere motes, particles at which you may not look twice ...