Science

People associate wasps with memories of picnic invasions, BBQs under siege, and painful stings. There is a lot more to these much-maligned insects though, and with more than 100,000 different species, their life histories range from the quietly unobtrusive to the bizarre and gruesome. A new study in the Journal of Experimental Biology documents one such disturbing example of wasp larvae that takes control of their unfortunate spider hosts.

The Universe is experiencing a slow death, like a person resting on the sofa awaiting eternal sleep, according to astronomers from a project which measured the energy generated by 200,000 galaxies.

A study of college students at a large California university has found that people in interracial relationships tend to be more attractive than those dating someone of the same ethnicity. The research was published in the August issue of the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

Here’s what we know: Carbon dioxide is building up in the atmosphere as the result of manmade emissions, trapping more and more heat and warming the planet. Here’s what we’re still working on: Of the excess CO2 that doesn’t stick around in the atmosphere — about 60 percent of it — exactly how much gets pulled into various so-called carbon sinks, such as the world’s oceans and forests, and where exactly the main sinks are located.

Wolves and foxes are closely related and share many of the same characteristics. But look at their eyes – where wolves have rounded pupils like humans, foxes instead have a thin vertical line. But it isn’t just canines –across the animal kingdom, pupils come in all shapes and sizes. So why the differences?

A pair of Russian cosmonauts began their working week on Monday by cleaning the windows of the International Space Station (ISS), floating more than 200 miles (320 km) above the earth's surface.

Only aggressive efforts to rein in global warming coupled with a rethinking of the British countryside will save many native species of butterfly, according to a study published Monday.

More than two dozen top US scientists, among them nuclear researchers and Nobel prize winners, praised the Iran nuclear deal as major security achievement in a letter to President Barack Obama, The New York Times reported.

Despite the fact that 98% of climatologists accept manmade climate change as a fact, almost a quarter of Americans still believe that climate science is junk science and that global warming is a grand hoax. Major oil companies have poured a lot of money into fueling climate skepticism. But while Big Oil wants to keep the public fooled, the major players in the industry, like Exxon and Shell, know better. They also stand to profit handsomely from a hotter planet. And they are not the only ones. Manmade climate change, caused by the burning of fossil fuels and the resulting widespread emission of CO2 into the atmosphere, may be a catastrophe for most humans and non-human species, but for a select group of industries, global warming represents just another opportunity to make money.

Mammoth remains that could be around 20,000 years old have been discovered at a building site in central Switzerland, a local official said Friday.

Most teenagers in the United States start the school day too early each morning, robbing them of the sleep they need to concentrate properly and remain healthy, according to a study.

State-of-the-art forensic technology from South Africa has been used to try and unravel the mystery of what was smoked in tobacco pipes found in the Stratford-upon-Avon garden of British playwright William Shakespeare.