Mental Floss

BIOLOGY

The earliest known ancestor of all living things made its home on a hydrothermal vent, subsisting on hydrogen and metal.

Kate Horowitz

We've misunderstood them for well over a century.

David Adamski, Karina Boege, Jean-Francois Landry, Jae-Cheon Sohn via Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

There are Star Wars fans everywhere, including among the scientists who study life on Earth.

iStock

Researchers use math to explain why jet lag happens and how travel direction plays a role.

Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images

What do you know about them beyond “They’re the ones with the green heads”?

It's called convergent evolution. When you have a good idea, you stick with it.

iStock

Bones created in a lab could provide a low-carbon alternative.

Metropolitan Touring via Vimeo

Juan Pablo Culasso has turned his perfect pitch into a career in nature recording.

iStock

Researchers say only 1/1000th of 1 percent have been identified to date.

ISTOCK

Here's a good reason to avoid ditching those veggie scraps.

The cicadas are coming!!!

In the spring of 2021, the cicadas of Brood X will surface in the Eastern U.S. for the first time in 17 years.

iStock

There's a lot more than estrogen and testosterone.

iStock

Mouse cells riding aboard the science satellite SJ-10 reached the blastocyst stage last week.

DC Emergence // YouTube

He majored in physics and philosophy and managed to apply them both to his decades of historic work.

iStock

And that gene just so happens to be called "sonic hedgehog."

Giorgia squeri via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 4.0

Being cold depletes an animal’s energy reserves and immune system.

Thierry Hennet

It’s so much more than baby food.

Brian Gratwicke via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY 2.0

Some populations of lowland leopard frogs in Arizona have gene variants that protect them from a deadly fungal disease.

9. Righties tend to give higher ratings to objects on the right side of a page.

iStock

Science is a little stumped by this one.

iStock

The collection dates back to 1892 and contains around 20 million specimens.

C. Bickel / Science (2016)

This is life at its most minimalistic.

Developmental Cell

One cell of this fish can express one of 5000 possible shades.

iStock

Only about 10 percent of people are left-handed. If you’re one of them, you're part of a rare and special group.