Life Science

Ever find yourself momentarily disoriented in a familiar place or encounter a friend who looks like a stranger? You could be experiencing jamais vu.

By Jennifer Walker-Journey

Think of goosebumps as 'skin orgasms' that are caused by unexpected and pleasant experiences. You know you get them when you're cold, but what is going on in our brains that triggers them?

By Jennifer Walker-Journey

Mangroves provide a habitat for wildlife such as fish, birds, deer and insects. They also stabilize shorelines, protect against storm surges and improve water quality. What's not to love?

By Stephanie Parker

Snake plants are attractive and virtually ironclad houseplants, almost impossible to kill, though some of the hype about them acting as air purifying filters has been overblown.

By Jesslyn Shields

The Bionic Reading app has exploded in popularity. But can it really make you a speed reader?

By Sharise Cunningham

The nitrogen cycle is the system by which nitrogen is converted into different chemical forms, some usable to humans and animals and some not, as it circulates among the atmosphere, the land and the oceans.

By Jesslyn Shields

Hundreds of crops in developing countries are relatively unknown in the developed world because they're often hard to grow or export. But scientists have found that CRISPR editing can speed up traditional plant breeding techniques.

By Dave Roos

Machines can translate some of the biological functions of plants into synthesizer sounds. But are these synthesized translations the same thing as music?

By Jesslyn Shields

Countless superhero movies have been released in the past decade, playing to our fascination with people with higher than usual abilities. But what if people really could have superpowers like those portrayed in the movies, thanks to the inheritance of so-called super genes?

By Diana Brown & Sascha Bos

A new study shows that mothers prefer daughters and fathers prefer sons, regardless of economic background, contradicting an earlier well-known hypothesis.

By Alia Hoyt

You could call dopamine the most misunderstood neurochemical in the brain. It's allegedly the cause of people getting addicted to drugs, chocolate or video games. But what does really dopamine do?

By Patrick J. Kiger

At least not in nature. Scientists have discovered the two gene families that play key roles in making fruits and vegetables either round or long. Could a square fruit be on the horizon?

By Dave Roos

The more we research our closest extinct human ancestor, the more we realize how similar we were. But could we have shared a joke?

By Jesslyn Shields

Researchers are calling for a new "Noah's Ark" to store microbes that might one day be valuable.

By Chris Opfer

A massive white oak in the hometown of the University of Georgia has many wondering whether a tree can even have legal rights - and about the future of the environmental and animal rights movements.

By Jamie Allen

A new year is always a good time to set new goals. We've come up with five healthy changes that have been scientifically shown to improve your well-being.

By Dave Roos

Bezoars are concretions found in the stomachs of animals that were once believed to cure poisoning and plague.

By Loraine Fick

Scientists started an experiment back in 2014 that will run for 500 years. The first results were recently published. So, what have they found so far?

By Nathan Chandler

ASMR has become a pop phenomenon and scientists are trying to figure out why some people love those tingling-inducing videos and others can't stand them.

By Nathan Chandler

For years, speculation has surrounded the government's high security animal disease research center, which is slated to close in 2023.

By Patrick J. Kiger

Amanita phalloides is non-native to the North American continent, introduced to California from Europe, and rapidly spreading.

By Tara Yarlagadda

Researchers from Penn State University College of Medicine suggest that a shared circuit in the brain could be one reason why heavy drinking and high-fat 'junk food' cravings go hand in hand.

By Michelle Konstantinovsky

Australia's western coast boasts such pink wonders. But what gives these lakes their pink hue?

By Tara Yarlagadda & Austin Henderson

Does everyone have a double out there somewhere that they don't know about? Science says the odds are pretty slim.

By Alia Hoyt

It's easy to equate Caucasian with white. But the word Caucasian touches on issues deeper than skin color. HowStuffWorks looks at its true meaning.

By John Donovan & Austin Henderson