When Curiosity goes looking for organic molecules in Mars's solid surface, it vaporizes a rock sample and sniffs the gas that comes out. The plan could be going awry thanks to a pesky little mineral called jarosite. » 2/20/15 2:30pm Friday 2:30pm

There are 20,000 genes in the human genome, but only a small fraction of them are active in any given cell. This video from Nature explains with beautiful clarity the system that activity, turning genes on and off. It's called the epigenome, and it's incredibly important. Now you can understand how it works, too. » 2/19/15 4:00pm Thursday 4:00pm

The cover of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures is famously graced with the radio pulses of a dying star. Its origins, however, have always been unclear. But now, Scientific American's Jen Christiansen has followed the rabbit hole to the very end—to an obscure 1970 PhD astronomy thesis and the guy who wrote it. » 2/18/15 5:50pm Wednesday 5:50pm

In the days and weeks before Chinese New Year, some 700 million people—twice the entire population of the U.S.—cram onto trains, buses, planes and boats to go home. This mass migration is the largest annual movement of humans in the world, and now it can be tracked by smartphone. » 2/18/15 4:50pm 2/18/15 4:50pm

In one of those naked PR moves, Nestlé announced today it would only use natural flavorings and colors in its candy. Which means it's a good time to remember that is "natural" does not mean better. The natural stuff is just as processed, and comes from places like beaver butts and insects. » 2/17/15 6:30pm 2/17/15 6:30pm

Restaurants have to strike a fine balance between eerily quiet and shouting-across-the-table loud. At Oakland's Oliveto, the high-tech solution is a set of mics, speakers, and sound-absorbing panels that constantly record, modify, and pipe back the ideal background noise—essentially real-time Photoshop for sound. » 2/17/15 3:50pm 2/17/15 3:50pm

São Paulo is Brazil's largest and wealthiest city, a bustling concrete jungle of 11 million people. Now imagine the city going for days without water for drinking, bathing, or cleaning—it's a dystopian scenario not far from São Paulo's reality thanks to a water crisis made worse by drought. » 2/17/15 1:30pm 2/17/15 1:30pm

For years, a small Canadian company, Okanagan Specialty Fruits, has been touting its Arctic apple, which doesn't turn an unsightly brown after being sliced. The U.S. Department of Agriculture finally approved it for planting this week. But before you see any Arctic apples at the grocery store, get ready for a big… » 2/14/15 12:00pm 2/14/15 12:00pm

This little cone of plastic that fits on your eyeball is an extremely thin telescope, and its zoom can be turned on and off with a simple wink of the eye. » 2/13/15 2:00pm 2/13/15 2:00pm

Garbage in the ocean is a big problem, but until now we didn't know how big. A study published today in Science drops a rough but still astounding estimate: 8 million metric tons per year. That's 20 to 2000 times more than what experts had estimated. » 2/12/15 2:12pm 2/12/15 2:12pm