Brain & Behavior
5 research-backed ways to build a habit that actually lasts
The 21-day myth won't save you—but these science-tested strategies might actually rewire your brain.
Jul 23, 2026
Writer at Science Blog
Mal James
Contributor
Mal James is an editor at Science Blog, where he reviews evidence-led coverage across science, health, technology, and the natural world. He focuses on whether articles represent their sources clearly, distinguish findings from interpretation, and give readers the context needed to understand the evidence.
Earth & Environment
15 things you probably didn't know about the deep ocean
We've explored less of Earth's ocean floor than we have the surface of Mars, and what lurks in the darkness keeps defying our expectations.
Jul 23, 2026
Social Sciences
In 1932 Australia sent a small artillery detachment with machine guns to cull thousands of emus damaging Western Australia’s wheat fields…
When the Australian Army went to war against emus armed with machine guns, the birds won.
Jul 23, 2026
Social Sciences
Say pyramids and everyone pictures Egypt, but the country with the most of them lies to its south
A forgotten empire built twice as many pyramids as Egypt, yet most travelers never see a single one.
Jul 22, 2026
Space
No wind stirs the Moon and no rain falls there, and that stillness has a strange consequence
The Moon's airless vacuum is turning Apollo's dusty footprints into an accidental time capsule, preserving humanity's first steps in a way Earth's erosion never could.
Jul 22, 2026
Science
You are measurably taller when you wake than when you go to bed, and lose it again by nightfall
Your spine is slowly squeezing itself flat every waking hour, returning the lost millimeters only once you lie down.
Jul 22, 2026
Brain & Behavior
There may be a hard ceiling on friendship, set not by our schedules but by the human brain itself
The paradox of modern connection: we have more people at our fingertips than ever, yet our brains may be wired to truly know only a few dozen.
Jul 22, 2026
Life
The oldest known land animal alive today hatched before the telephone was invented
A creature that has outlived empires, technologies, and countless human generations still munches grass on a remote island, indifferent to the centuries that have transformed the world around him.
Jul 22, 2026
Life
Most people think a goldfish forgets everything within seconds, which helps make the little bowl seem humane — but that is a myth
The three-second memory myth lets us ignore what goldfish actually experience: boredom, frustration, and the slow wear of confinement.
Jul 22, 2026
Earth & Environment
To guard its nuclear waste for 100,000 years, Finland is trusting copper, clay and ancient stone
A Finnish repository betting on geology and engineering to contain nuclear waste longer than human civilization has existed—but skeptics warn the copper canisters may fail far sooner than planned.
Jul 22, 2026
Life
It walked on two legs, wore a beak, and looked just like a small dinosaur
A crocodile relative mastered the dinosaur blueprint millions of years before dinosaurs existed, suggesting convergent evolution worked faster than we thought.
Jul 22, 2026
Social Sciences
The 'tallest' mountain on Earth is named after a man who asked for it not to be
Everest, to his credit, did not want the honor. He told the Royal Geographical Society that his name could not be written in Hindi and could not be pronounced by the people of India.
Jul 21, 2026
Brain & Behavior
A reminder from Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius to live in the present
Aurelius builds the argument to a point. Since the present is all anyone can lose: this instant, and nothing more.
Jul 20, 2026
Earth & Environment
Sunlight reaches only the top 200 metres of the sea before the water swallows it, which means the overwhelming majority of the living space…
Yet beneath a wafer-thin layer of illumination lies a vast realm of creatures that have never known sunlight—and we barely understand what lives there.
Jul 18, 2026