A new study has identified a “Pinocchio effect” that can be used to tell if a person is lying. Though the nose of fibbers doesn’t actually grow, the temperature rises around the nose and the orbital muscle in the inner …

One of the many things Thomas Edison tried to make a success of–a talking doll business–failed, primarily because the dolls cost roughly the equivalent of half a month’s salary for the average person in 1888. But a recording made for …

NASA announced today that Mars rover Opportunity has completed a reconnaissance circuit around an area named “Matijevic Hill.” Opportunity began its study of the location at the beginning of October. The site is named after Jacob Matijevic, who led the …

A few days ago, we told you about the jumping spider that YouTube helped send to space. It was part of one of the winning projects from the YouTube Space Lab experiment launched last year. Google announced that the spider …

Astronomers announced today that have characterized hundreds of previously unseen starburst galaxies. The starburst galaxies, which produce hundreds of stars each year, reveal that high star-formation rates have been the norm for much of our universe’s history. Using the European …

A new study has moved forward with a drug that could target a newly-identified breast cancer driver. Breast cancers are defined and treated according to their hormonal drivers, of which the most common are estrogen, progesterone, and HER2. Androgen receptors …

Mars Rover Curiosity has now used each of its on-board instruments to analyze Martian soil. Though researchers have found a complex chemistry in the soil on Mars, they haven’t found what would be considered a major discovery: carbon-based organic compounds …

Excited NASA researchers today announced that the Voyager 1 spacecraft has encountered a new, unexpected region on its way out of the solar system. The scientists believe that the region is the final hurdle before Voyager enters interstellar space. The …

A new study has shown that a common diabetes medication may be useful in the prevention or treatment of ovarian cancer. The study, published in the journal CANCER, showed that patients with ovarian cancer who took the drug metformin tended …

Observations by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Venus Express show that changes in Venus’ atmosphere could be the result of volcanic eruptions. A paper on the new findings has been published in the journal Nature Geoscience. According to the atmosphere …

A new study suggests that isolation can result in reduced production of myelin – a protective nerve fiber – and could contribute to developing mental illness. Myelin acts as an “insulating material” around the areas of nerve cells that send …

The above photo is an image of the irregular galaxy NGC 5253, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope‘s Advanced Camera for Surveys. It combines both visible and infrared exposures. A larger version of the image can be viewed here. The …

TED recently launched its Playlists feature, which consists of lists of TED Talks curated by people whose names you might recognize. We recently shared the list curated by AOL co-founder Steve Case. TED has now released a playlist curated by …

A team of researchers has uncovered a community of bacteria living in one of the most inhospitable place on Earth: the dark, cold, salty environment under a remote lake in Antarctica. The discovery will help teach scientists how life can …

A new study shows that people with type 2 diabetes who are diagnosed with cancer ignore their diabetes in favor of cancer treatment. However, uncontrolled high blood sugar weakens their immune systems and is more likely to kill them than …

Astronomers have now observed that the dust disc orbiting a brown dwarf contains millimeter-sized solid particles – the same “grains” found in the denser discs surrounding new stars.The new data suggests that rocky planets, such as Earth, may be more …

Last year, YouTube and Lenovo kicked off the YouTube Space Lab experiment, inviting teenagers around the world to have an experiment performed in space. There were over 2,000 entries. Two experiments got to go to space. One of them, was …

A new study by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) is showing that the melting rate for ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica has increased over the past two decades. All together, the ice sheets are losing over three …

The hypothesis that Mercury has abundant water ice and other frozen volatile materials in its shadowed polar craters appears to have been confirmed. NASA announced today that new measurements from its Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft …

Clearly, TED Talks have become really popular. In fact, earlier this month, TED announced that it has surpassed a billion video views, and that likely doesn’t even take into account the talks watched on Netflix or television. In fact, they’ve …

Astronomers have measured the mass of what could be the most massive black hole yet discovered. The object, located at the center of the galaxy NGC 1277, is the equivalent of 17 billion Suns and makes up 14% of it’s …