Science Versus Myth

It could be that the hunt for the Higgs is a little like Christopher Columbus' famous 1492 voyage, full of surprising discoveries that take particle physicists to places they never anticipated. How's that voyage going anyhow?

By Robert Lamb

Superman has his Bizarro planet, Alice tiptoes through the looking glass. For scientists, that world where normal rules and laws fail to explain what's happening is quantum physics. What's so weird about it?

By Robert Lamb

If the colonists hadn't eked out a victory against the mighty British Empire, what would have been their fate? Would leaders like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson have been executed?

By Patrick J. Kiger

Black holes have serious pull, and they're not afraid to use it. Could one of these skulking bad boys ever arise in our home, sweet (solar system) home?

By Nicholas Gerbis

It's all fun and games when you're on a deserted island. But eventually you're going to get really thirsty. How bad can glugging seawater be?

By Vicki M. Giuggio

You can say goodbye to the seven continents and hello to days that seem infernally long. What else awaits you on a spin-free Earth?

By Jonathan Atteberry & Desiree Bowie

Would the people of the world get along better if they spoke the same language? Or would it just be easier for us to hate each other?

By Colleen Cancio

Decapitation is a surefire way to deliver a quick and painless death, right? In actuality, an increasingly large body of historical and scientific evidence suggests that beheading doesn't, in fact, deliver instant death.

By Josh Clark

How great would it be to reconcile general relativity with quantum theory and truly have a theory of everything? That's what a band of theoretical physicists and their trusty hypothetical strings have been working on for decades.

By Robert Lamb

Once upon a time, our universe was born. Was it all just luck that it evolved in a manner compatible with life? Or are such "coincidences" all in a day's work for a universe?

By Robert Lamb

Let's assume that it's possible to create a complete loop in time travel -- that time travelers could travel into the past and then return to the future (or vice versa). What could we do with our time machine, and how would time travel affect our lives?

By Chelsea Hedquist

Wood, grass and food scraps undergo a process known as biodegradation when they're buried. They're transformed by bacteria in the soil into other useful compounds, but those same bacteria typically turn up their noses at plastic. Luckily, that's not the end of the story.

By William Harris

Plastics that aren't recycled tend to hang around our planet like houseguests who have worn out their welcome. Can biodegradable plastics, which may break down in fewer than 90 days, change that scenario?

By William Harris

The hybrid car may be the savior of the automobile industry, but its production processes have come under fire of late. The car may be green, but what about the way the car actually gets made?

By Dave Roos

Even though they've come down in price, solar panels are still expensive and somewhat inefficient. And then there are cloudy days. Can solar panels ever replace fossil fuels for our everyday needs?

By Jonathan Strickland

Imagine waking up one morning to find yourself unable to get to work due to a dead car battery. You won't have to do that if you have a solar car battery charger -- but how well do they really work?

By Marie Willsey

Most of us are accustomed to watching 2-D films with flat images. But when we put on 3-D glasses, we see a world that has depth. We can imagine existing in such a world because we live in one. What about another dimension altogether?

By Molly Edmonds & Desiree Bowie

Legend says that jackalopes roam the plains of Wyoming and even like to sing campfire songs. How much truth is there to this mythical creature?

By Mark Mancini

When it comes to water witches we're faced with two distinct possibilities. One, they're either really good, at pulling a fast one on desperate landowners looking for groundwater. Or, two, they actually know what they're doing.

By John Donovan

Humans are awesome and we have superpowers of our own. But could a greedy world of "supervillains" twist them against us?

By Diana Brown

When reeling off dubious facts (like lemmings plunging off cliffs en masse), there's no better retort to a skeptical audience than calmly explaining that it's not just true - it's science...right?

By Kate Kershner & Sascha Bos

CERN is a European research organization dedicated to the study of very tiny particles. Could they discover time travel?

By Jonathan Strickland

You know you can't believe everything you see or hear. But between the misinformation on the Internet and our natural propensity to believe what we're told, it can be hard to tell fact from fiction. Here are 10 ways to avoid being conned.

By Patrick J. Kiger

The best photograph can't touch one. A death mask, in all its 3-D glory, is the last likeness of a loved one that a family can own. After all, it vividly preserves what some consider to be the very essence of a person -- the face.

By Erin Wright

Some malarkey is so believable that it's turned many of us into inadvertent purveyors of hogwash. What are 10 bits of malarkey that tend to slip through the "hey, wait a minute" filter?

By Julia Layton