The Colorado Mystery Drones Weren’t Real

The mysterious drone sightings that captured national attention were a classic case of mass hysteria.
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Ancient skulls tell new story about our first settlers

An analysis of four ancient skulls found in Mexico suggests that the first humans to settle in North America were more biologically diverse than scientists had previously believed.
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Trapped in Iran

In July 2019 Nicolas Pelham, The Economist’s Middle East correspondent, received a rare journalist’s visa to Iran. On the day he was due to fly home, he was detained
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Colombia Orders Uber To Halt Services

Colombia Orders Uber To Halt Services
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New study claims some cancers 'better left undiscovered'

A controversial new study claims about one in every five cancers diagnosed in Australia would have been better left undiscovered.
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An Art Fair Where You Can Buy a Steer and a Painting in the Same Venue

“It’s not cowboy art, it’s not parlor art, it is a nuanced view of the American landscape," said one artist at the Coors Western Art Exhibit and Sale, where collectors gather see art that connects them to a person, a memory, or a community they value.
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Australia's National Digital ID is here, but the government's not talking about it

A new digital ID system will gather piles of personal information in one place -- and you won't have full control over who has access
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Why Brazil's Charges Against Glenn Greenwald Are an ‘Absolute Red Alert’

It's a sign that democratically elected governments are growing more comfortable cracking down on journalists for publishing information originally obtained illegally, even if it’s in the public interest.
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How to Make Sense of an Undrowned Town

Residents of Celles in France were evicted so their village could be flooded. Then, it wasn't.
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Data from Behind Enemy Lines: How Russia May have Used Twitter to Seize Crimea

Online discourse by users of social media can provide important clues about the political dispositions of communities. New research suggests it can even be used by governments as a source of military intelligence to estimate prospective casualties and costs incurred from occupying foreign countries.
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How Trump lost the trade wars in 16 cool charts

The verdict is in. The US started trade wars with several trading partners. It has lost them comprehensively
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UCSF Study: Electric Scooter Injuries Jump 222 Percent In Four Years

The flood of electric scooters on city streets is also producing a wave of injuries in emergency rooms, many of them serious head injuries.
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ESA researchers built a plant that can extract oxygen from the moon

European Space Agency (ESA) researchers have begun extracting oxygen from simulated moon dust. A reclamation plant has been built at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands
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Apple could be forced to abandon its Lightning cable by EU regulators

European lawmakers are pushing for a universal mobile phone charger that could mean the end to Apple's Lightning cable.
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Humble Australia Fire Relief Bundle

100% of bundle proceeds go to help the wildlife and animals affected by the Australian bushfires.
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Neanderthals 'dived in the ocean' for shellfish

Until now, there's been little evidence our evolutionary relatives could swim.
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Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property

Cultural norms, complex religious influences and friendly police officers make losing something no big deal. But does this tell the whole story about Japan’s relationship with honesty?
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The rise of Japan's 'super solo' culture

From cocktails to karaoke, more Japanese people are going it alone. What's causing the huge change in the traditionally group-oriented country?
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Political assassinations were once unthinkable. Why the US killing of Soleimani sets a worrying precedent

In recent decades, most nations have agreed on certain norms to ensure peace, including an end to assassinations. Trump's move to kill an Iranian general upends this carefully balanced system.
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The Moral Hazard of Dealing With China

Academic institutions must grapple with the question of when engagement becomes complicity.
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San Francisco has nearly five empty homes per homeless resident

And the Bay Area’s ten largest cities combined sport three empty homes for every two persons without one.
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San Diego’s massive, 7-year experiment with facial recognition technology appears to be a flop

Since 2012, the city’s law enforcement agencies have compiled over 65,000 face scans and tried to match them against a massive mugshot database. But it’s almost completely unclear how effective the initiative was, with one spokesperson saying they’re unaware of a single arrest or prosecution that stemmed from the program.
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John Malkovich interview: 'I get asked wild questions about “my legacy”. What are you talking about? I’m an actor. My legacy is I’m a jerk-off'

Oddballs, schemers and psychopaths: in the course of his long career, John Malkovich has convincingly played them all. But whether this makes him an unusual – or unusually perfect – choice for the role of supreme pontiff in HBO’s The New Pope is something he would rather not consider.
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WHO says mysterious illness in China likely being caused by new virus

Chinese authorities believe a new coronavirus — from the family that produced SARS and MERS — may be the cause of the condition.
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From politics to the plate: how pad Thai was invented by government

Its history is as political as it is delicious. Dive into the history of this not-so-Thai noodle dish that was born of politics and nationalism almost 80 years ago.
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How Long Will Australia Be Livable?

Facing a future of fire, drought, and rising oceans, Australians will have to weigh the choice between getting out early or staying to fight.
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I didn't want to fly – so I took a cargo ship from Germany to Canada

A slow boat across the Atlantic plus a scenic train home to Vancouver add up to a hugely enjoyable three-week trip
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What to Know About the Wuhan Pneumonia Oubreak

Mysterious virus in central China raises fears of a new epidemic
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4,000-Year-Old Guide to the Ancient Egyptian Underworld May Be Oldest Illustrated 'Book'

Archaeologists recovered the remnants of an ancient "Book of Two Ways" from a sarcophagus
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What Will Another Decade of Climate Crisis Bring?

2019 has been called the year we woke up to climate change. Australia’s wildfires are yet more evidence that it’s time we started acting like it.
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This Robot’s Journey to an Icy Alien Moon Starts Beneath Antarctica

NASA scientists completed field tests in November of a floating rover they hope will one day travel to Europa, the frozen ocean moon of Jupiter.
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America’s First Opioid Epidemic

As the country struggles with a terrible opioid crisis, we remember a similar epidemic that raged through the U.S. in the 1800s.
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The Amazon Rainforest Is About To Cross An Irreversible Threshold, Top Scientists Say

That's because humans have been cutting and burning the forest, which allows moisture to escape the ecosystem.
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Earliest roasted root vegetables found in 170,000-year-old cave dirt

Charred fragments found in a cave in southern Africa suggest that the real “paleo diet” included lots of roasted root vegetables that were rich in carbohydrates
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The Story of How Humans Came to the Americas Is Constantly Evolving

Surprising new clues point to the arrival taking place thousands of years earlier than previously believed
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