Science Versus Myth

To understand the universe better, scientists from all over the world are going to harness the power of an enormous machine -- the Large Hadron Collider.

By Jonathan Strickland

Decades before you ever heard of the Higgs, this multinational particle physics lab was smashing its way to answers about how the universe worked. Pop inside CERN just as half of the world's particle physicists do every year.

By John Perritano

We'd by lying if we said that the sight of the Grim Reaper standing by our bedside, scythe in hand, wouldn't scare the daylights out of us. How did this well-known personification of death become so frightening?

By William Harris

Real-life haunted houses make us hide under the covers and sleep with one eye open. Learn about the spooky history of these real-life haunted houses.

By Cristen Conger & Jonathan Atteberry

At an intersection, you hear the pitch of the train's horn go up and then back down after the train has passed. Why?

By William Harris

Forward and back, left and right, up and down -- most of us are familiar with these spatial dimensions. We might even pinpoint our location in time. Is that all there is to dimensions? No way, say the scientists who have a theory for everything.

By Robert Lamb

It opened the door for numerous technological advances, from nuclear power and nuclear medicine to the inner workings of the sun. It even appeared in the title of a Mariah Carey album. Really. Can you define those three key variables, too?

By Robert Lamb & Yara Simón

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

Experts are baffled as to why dogs keep throwing themselves off Overtoun Bridge in Scotland. Are they lured by unseen scents or is something supernatural at work?

By Nathan Chandler

Does everyone's favorite Wookiee call Bigfoot family?

By Robert Lamb

Maybe it's mistrust of the U.S. government and health-related industries, as well as Lyme's insidious nature, that makes this idea catnip for conspiracy theories. But what's the truth?

By Nathan Chandler

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

By Diana Brown

These booming sounds are part of a mysterious phenomenon that's occurred for years around the U.S. and elsewhere in the world.

By Patrick J. Kiger

Are strange skeletons unearthed across the globe evidence that we're not alone, or are they simply more myths and legends that are bound to be debunked?

By Diana Brown

There's no doubt people are seeing lights. But are they really spirits of ghosts — or even aliens — or can these unusual lights be clarified with a simple explanation?

By Diana Brown

Can infrasound explain away ghosts, hauntings and other paranormal activity?

By Diana Brown

When a super-realistic android or video character gives us a creepy feeling, it enters the uncanny valley. Why do we get spooked, and what can we do to avoid it?

By Ed Grabianowski

CERN's work has been groundbreaking to say the least, but conspiracy theories run rampant about the potential disasters it could cause, too.

By Diana Brown

Theories surrounding the source of the Tunguska blast that rocked the Siberian region in 1908 abound. But the exact cause is still a mystery.

By Diana Brown