Category: Science

  Have you ever heard the idea that urinating while facing the sun causes a headache? It sounds like something your grandmother might have warned you about. Still many people say they feel a pain or dull throbbing in their head when they stand in the sun during their morning routine. So is there a…

  Have you ever walked through a garden on a morning and seen a spider web shining in the sunlight covered with tiny perfect droplets of dew? This is a natural scene but when you pause and think about the physics it feels very confusing. How can a silk strand— one hundred times thinner than…

We’ve all been there. Sitting through an afternoon meeting, staring at a stack of paperwork, or lying in bed with the lights off. Then suddenly—there it is. A big yawn takes over. Your eyes water. Your jaw opens wide. You take a breath that feels like a release. ​For years, people thought yawning was simply…

Standard physics classes teach us that a photon is a fundamental, indivisible packet of light. It represents the smallest unit of light energy. You can block, absorb, or redirect a photon. However, splitting one in two seemed impossible—until recently. ​A team of researchers from the University of Oslo decided to test this boundary. They asked…

Have you ever stood by a lake and looked into the water to watch fish swimming? We can easily spot underwater objects even if they seem slightly shifted. Have you ever wondered about the reverse? ​Does a fish looking up from underwater see the air and sky the way we see water? ​The short answer…

  Imagine waking up one day checking your phone for directions and finding out your GPS is completely dead. You pull out a needle compass only to watch it spin aimlessly in circles. Sounds like the start of a sci-fi movie right? While we often take it for granted Earth’s field—an invisible shield generated deep…

When you see a butterfly gently fluttering from flower to flower, you might think it is a delicate, colorful garden visitor. However, beneath those bright wings lies a masterclass in natural engineering. Butterflies are not ordinary insects because they have sensory superpowers and unique physical adaptations. In this article, we will explore some amazing butterfly…

When you think of a honeybee, you probably think of a little, buzzing insect making honey and occasionally ruining a summer picnic. But behind that fuzzy yellow and black exterior lies one of the most sophisticated engineered organisms in the natural world. From digestive systems that serve as digestive systems to navigating by ultraviolet rays,…

There was a time when making a phone call didn’t mean tapping on a slab of glass. Imagine if you could travel back in time to the early 20th century, at a busy telephone exchange in London. You raise the weighty earpiece of a rotary phone and – before long – a steady, soothing voice…

When you think of top-tier predators in the animal kingdom, lions or eagles probably come to mind. But nature has a way of hiding some of its coolest engineering in the most bizarre packages and Platypus electroreception is one of the best examples. Enter the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)—an Australian creature that looks like a duck,…