"Many people find petting a purring cat is soothing, and research indicates it’s not just because of the soft fur. The act of petting and even the sound of purring can trigger oxytocin release in our brains." via @livescience.com www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/22/w...

"While there is evidence that probiotics can help resolve gut troubles, if you are generally happy with the function of your gut, there's actually good reason to avoid them." www.realclearscience.com/blog/2025/09...

"Men are always warm because their testosterone causes mitochondria to waste energy during metabolism." www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/22/w...

The deep mathematics of why 10² + 11² + 12² = 13² + 14²: "It’s not just an odd quirk of numbers that makes it true, but a deep mathematical insight that dates all the way back to Pythagoras." by @startswithabang.bsky.social www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/22/t...

"Evidence from autopsies and surgical patients suggested that oral bacteria can infiltrate hardened arteries and trigger immune responses tied to heart attacks." www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/22/b...

"Arguments on science often derail into misinformation. The FLICC framework helps expose denialist tactics and keep conversations grounded in evidence." via @mcgilloss.bsky.social www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/20/t...

"We disinfect water before we drink it. Germicidal ultraviolet could make airborne disease as rare as those carried by water." via @worksinprogress.bsky.social www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/20/t...

Peer reviewers behaving badly: “This manuscript was not worth my time so I did not read it and recommend rejection”, “What the authors have done is an insult to science” and “This young lady is lucky to have been mentored by the leading men in the field”. www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/20/p...

"Armed with vinegar, soap, and a little evidence, here’s a science-based way to tackle a fruit fly problem." via @mcgilloss.bsky.social www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/20/h...

Long term risk of keto diet? "A yearlong study in mice showed that although the diet initially reduced their weight, over time it led to fatty liver disease, glucose intolerance and dangerously high cholesterol." via @newsweek.com www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/20/k...

Early humans reached Europe via an Ice Age land bridge from Turkey. via @popsci.com www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/19/e...

"A "forgotten" castle discovered on a Hebridean isle could have been home to kings who once ruled large parts of western Scotland, say archaeologists." www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/19/f...

Autism rates are rising. Researchers say it cannot solely be explained by more people being diagnosed. www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/19/r...

Trump’s Golden Dome will cost 10 to 100 times more than the Manhattan Project, with no assurances that it will work. via @arstechnica.com www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/19/g...

"Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have made light-powered gears on a micrometer scale. This paves the way for the smallest on-chip motors in history, which can fit inside a strand of hair. Each gear is about 0.016 mm in diameter." www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/19/l...

Eat Teflon to solve the obesity epidemic? The idea won an Ig Nobel Prize. It's so crazy it just might work! via @theguardian.com www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/19/t...

1% of the population doesn't have sex. A study looks at what's different about them. "People who had never had sex tended to use drugs and alcohol less, be more educated, and to have started wearing glasses from a younger age." via @uk.theconversation.com www.realclearscience.com/articles/202...

New research paints a stark picture of shifting family structures in the U.S. "In 2024, there were 5.7 million more childless women in their primary childbearing years than anticipated, a gap that has widened substantially in recent years." www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/18/u...

Scientists are now seriously asking if humans were seeded by aliens. Here's why. via @sciencefocus.bsky.social www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/18/s...

"We’re not going to Mars anytime soon, because we haven’t solved…let me check my notes…ah, that’s right, ANY OF THESE PROBLEMS." via @universetoday.com www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/18/s...

"Missing for 139 years, the F.J. King was one of the most highly sought lost ships on Lake Michigan and had been the subject of countless search efforts since the 1970s." It has now been found. www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/18/l...

"Swedish researchers found that people who took a low daily dose of aspirin after having their tumour removed were half as likely to have their cancer return over the next three years than patients who took a placebo." via @theguardian.com www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/18/a...

"Àlex Gómez-Marín argues that scientific gatekeeping of alternatives to materialism is the most dangerous type of pseudoscience. To make progress, he argues, we need to examine what we don't understand in our current theories." www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/17/m...

"Xenotransplantation progress has been marred by bizarre experiments, moratoriums, and patient deaths. With recent successes, experts hope for widespread use." www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/17/i...

"One possibility to explain the constants of nature is that there’s more than one universe. That we live in a multiverse, with each different universe “sampling” different values of the constants." www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/17/d...

"Scientists say that the Sun's activity is on an escalating trajectory, outside the boundaries of the 11-year solar cycle. In fact, a new analysis of the data suggests that the activity of the Sun has been gradually rising since 2008." www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/17/o...

Why are officials in Florida ending vaccine mandates? Questionable ethics. "These "leaders" see nothing but individual choice as the sole good America ought to abide. They appear not to care who dies or is disabled as long as choice reigns supreme." www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/17/i...

"The risks posed when kids form bonds with chatbots have turned AI safety from an abstract worry into a political flashpoint. What happens now?" www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/17/t...

We talk about the existential risk of AI all the time. But are we ignoring the existential risk of volcanoes? via @aeon.co www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/16/a...

It was one of Silicon Valley's strangest ideas: building large floating cities buoyed by tech and free from regulation. Seasteading is making a comeback. www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/16/s...

"For centuries, scientists have feared discoveries that might trigger forces beyond human control. From artificial life to vacuum collapse, this is the story of science’s recurring doomsday visions." via @bigthink.com www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/16/t...

"Ever wondered why your routine check-up is less than satisfying? Hidden thinking errors quietly skew medical judgment, leading clinicians to label perfectly ordinary people as “difficult” and overlook the mind-body link that could unlock real relief." www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/16/c...

"The first flight of Northrop's upgraded Cygnus spacecraft, called Cygnus XL, is on its way to the international research lab... This mission, known as NG-23, is set to arrive at the ISS early Wednesday with 10,827 pounds of cargo." via @arstechnica.com www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/16/n...

"Smoke-drying mummification of human remains was practised... as far back as 12,000 years ago. This is the earliest known evidence of mummification anywhere in the world, far older than examples from ancient Egypt and South America." via @theconversation.com www.realclearscience.com/articles/202...

A new protein powder "requires 600 times less water and 200 times less land to produce one kilogram of protein than is required to produce one kilogram of beef." via @reason.com www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/15/a...

60 years after Gemini, newly processed images reveal incredible details. via @arstechnica.com www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/15/b...

"An asteroid that struck Chesapeake Bay 35 million years ago left a long trail of destruction in its wake, new research suggests." via @gizmodo.com www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/15/e...

"A new study published in Animal Cognition suggests that while dogs appear more affectionate and submissive than wolves during greetings with humans, these differences may not be solely due to domestication." www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/15/r...

How understanding nothingness might just explain everything. via @sciencefocus.bsky.social www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/15/u...

Toxic fumes are leaking into airplanes. "Doctors compare brain effects to concussions in NFL players. A Wall Street Journal investigation shows the problem is getting worse and not much is being done about it." via @wsj.com www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/15/t...

"If you were lucky 74,000 years ago, you would have survived the Toba supereruption, one of the largest catastrophic events that Earth has seen in the past 2.5 million years." via @us.theconversation.com www.realclearscience.com/articles/202...

"There’s a lot of noise being made about a possible link between hearing loss and dementia. But what does the science have to say?" www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/13/t...

PragerU's shockingly bad science: "The conservative media giant misrepresents science by bundling stark contradictions and iconoclasts." via @mcgilloss.bsky.social www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/13/p...

Is cosmic inflation too complicated? "Bertacca and Jimenez propose a radical alternative: gravitational waves and their dynamics were key to the early universe and ultimately gave rise to galaxies, stars, and planets." www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/13/g...

"A child... has died of a measles-related brain disorder stemming from an infection in infancy... Specifically, the child died of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, a rare but always fatal complication that strikes years after..." via @arstechnica.com www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/13/c...

"Discovered over 10,000 feet below the surface off Central California, the bumpy snailfish is one of three new species found during a 2019 deep-sea expedition led by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute." via @vicemagazine.bsky.social www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/13/a...

"Don't worry too much about planet-warming emissions, the US Energy Secretary has told the BBC, because within five years AI will have enabled the harnessing of nuclear fusion – the energy that powers the sun and stars." via @ www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/12/d...

"The Big Bang itself doesn’t correspond to the very beginning of our cosmos, at least, not anymore." via @bigthink.com www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/12/t...

"Streamers are building huge audiences by attacking academic physics as just another corrupt establishment. Scientists are starting to worry about the consequences." via @wsj.com www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/12/t...

NASA has debunked Avi Loeb's hypothesis that "a rare interstellar object hurtling through our solar system is a relic from a civilization in another celestial neighborhood." via @theguardian.com www.realclearscience.com/2025/09/12/n...