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4,748 articles from TIME

Watch: NASA Says U.S. Air Pollution Has Plummeted

Striking new images released by NASA this week show significant reductions in air pollution levels across the United States. In particular, at least one pollutant, nitrogen dioxide, has decreased substantially over the past decade. After ten years in orbit, the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA’s Aura satellite showed that the decrease is particularly prominent in the Northeast, the...


SATURDAY 28. JUNE 2014


Mars ‘Flying Saucer’ Splashes Back Down After Test

(LOS ANGELES) — A saucer-shaped vehicle launched by balloon high into Earth’s atmosphere has splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, completing a successful test of technology that could be used to land on Mars. The $150 million experimental flight Saturday tested a novel vehicle and a giant parachute designed to deliver heavier spacecraft and eventually astronauts. The parachute did not fully...

Facebook Totally Screwed with a Bunch of People in the Name of Science

Did your Facebook News Feed seem a little too happy, or perhaps a little too depressing for one week in January of 2012? That may have been because researchers were experimenting with your News Feed to figure out more about how humans’ emotions work when we’re physically apart. By tweaking the Facebook News Feed algorithm and studying nearly 700,000 Facebook users’ posts,...


FRIDAY 27. JUNE 2014


75,000 Snakes Gathered in Most Terrifying Animal Meet-Up Ever

When we think of animal meet-ups, the image of corgis frolicking on a beach comes to mind: There was a Corgi beach party & I missed it. http://t.co/yv7c8dOMNa— Ry Bell (@RyBell10) June 23, 2013 A recent animal meet-up in Canada was the exact opposite of that. Every spring, the Narcisse Snake Dens of Manitoba, Canada hosts an event for 75,000 writhing snakes. Say hello to your waking...

Russian Rocket Launch Aborted Due To ‘Technical Issues’

Russia has postponed Friday’s historic test launch of an Angara space rocket, Russia Today reports. The second attempt will take place Saturday. The Defense Ministry said the launch was automatically stopped just moments before countdown. Reports from Russian space agency Roscosmos claim “technical issues” are to blame for the scrapped launch. Russian President Vladimir Putin,...

Global Warming is Tough on Chickens Too, You Know

May was Earth’s hottest month on record — and as the planet gets warmer, chickens are struggling to adapt. Their body temperatures rise, which leads to higher mortality rates and an increased risk of disease that may threaten global poultry supply in the next decades. Enter geneticist Carl Schmidt and his team from the University of Delaware, who believe that reducing a chicken’s feather...


THURSDAY 26. JUNE 2014


New Retail Mantra: Customers are Scum

“When I went to Louis Vuitton, the sales girls were so [unfriendly]—I could not believe it. I was just dressed normally…and when I walked in [they] stared at me. It was like walking into a freezer, they were so cold toward me…” That’s a quote from a discussion board on a fashion website. It’s also the introduction to a scholarly article in the June 25 Journal of Consumer...

Prepare for El Niño, UN Weather Agency Warns

There’s a real risk that weather event El Niño will occur before the year’s end, the U.N.’s weather agency has said. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) issued a statement saying there’s a 60% chance of El Niño occurring between June and August. This likelihood increases to 75-80% from October to December. Many governments have already begun preparing for El...

Astronomers Are Closer to Understanding Dark Matter

Astronomers have come closer to understanding dark matter — one of the most elusive substances in the universe — by using high-energy telescopes to study the gravitational force of vast groups of galaxies that are bound together by gravity, known as galaxy clusters. Dark matter — which astronomers also believe is the most prevalent type of matter in the universe — is invisible and...

Water at 1 in 10 U.S. Beaches Fails to Make the Grade

If you swim at 10 different U.S. beaches, you could end up getting a stomach bug, conjunctivitis or even something more serious from one of them. New research has concluded that 10% of the country’s coastal and lakefront beaches fail to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s water-safety standards — in other words, they’re ripe with bacteria. Things are particularly bad in New...


WEDNESDAY 25. JUNE 2014


Designer T Cells Fight Viruses After Transplants

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bone marrow transplants save thousands of lives but patients are vulnerable to severe viral infections in the months afterward, until their new immune system kicks in. Now scientists are developing protection for that risky period — injections of cells specially designed to fend off up to five different viruses at once....

Years of Research Reveal More About Iconic Orcas

SEATTLE (AP) — Scientists studying Puget Sound orcas for the past decade now know they are among the most contaminated marine mammals, with pollutants particularly high in young killer whales, according to a report released Wednesday. MoreLet Them Wed! Top Court Strikes Utah Gay Marriage Ban NBC NewsJessica N. Turner: Moms, Put on That...

Cousteau Nears End of Underwater Living Experiment

AQUARIUS REEF BASE, Fla. (AP) — Fabien Cousteau has a week left in his 31-day underwater living experiment in the Florida Keys, and he’s not exactly eager to return to the surface. MoreFederal Appeals Court Strikes Down Utah's Gay Marriage Ban NBC NewsPowerful Ad Shows What A Little Girl Hears When You Tell Her...

The Government Wants Young Farmers To Hit the Hay (Literally)

The USDA has launched a New Farmers website targeted at young people struggling to get their start in the agriculture industry. The site brings together in one place a number of programs already available to newcomers: It can help young farmers get off the ground with a variety of loans from the Farm Service Agency, which often provides critical resources to those who are unable to get help from...

You Should Be Happy There Are Way More Sharks Near the U.S.

Pity the great white shark. Yes, it can bite you in half without trying hard, and it’s so blindingly quick that if a great white takes it into its feeble but aggressive mind to attack, you’ll be in pieces before you know it. Just as well, really. But the odds are astronomically low that such a thing will happen—and its got problems of its own. For every human killed by a shark, as we...

You Asked: Is the 5-Second Rule Legit?

Donut down! You quickly grab your grub, certain you’ve satisfied the 5-second rule with time to spare. But is your fallen food safe to eat? Past research shows roughly 70% of women would say yes, along with 56% of men, says Paul Dawson, a food scientist at Clemson University who has lab-tested the legitimacy of the 5-second rule. Unfortunately, snacking on stuff that has touched the ground is...

NASA’s New Rover May Soon Explore Frozen Waters in Outer Space

Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have finally built a robot that will be able to chart the icy waters found in outer space — like on Jupiter’s moon Europa — going where no other space robot has gone before. The Buoyant Rover for Under-Ice Exploration (BRUIE) is operated through satellite link and designed to cling onto the underside of ice with metal tires,...


TUESDAY 24. JUNE 2014


Climate Change Report Warns of Economic Tidal Wave in U.S.

Rising seas and extreme weather could lead to billions of dollars in economic losses, according to a new climate change report that strives to reframe the debate in economic terms. The study was commissioned by the Risky Business Project, a research organization chaired by a bipartisan panel of former officials, including ex-Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, former New York mayor Michael...

It Was Officially The Hottest May Ever

This year has been one of weather anomalies. Not only did the the polar vortex provide for some cities’ coldest winters in a decade, but according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), this May was the world’s hottest on record. The combined average temperature of global land and ocean surfaces was 58.6°F. While that might not seem too hot, the dry temperature...