The astounding quantities of discarded plastic that end up in oceans each year tend to concentrate in ring-like swirls of currents called gyres, yet most of it can be hard to spot—not…

Sarah Horrigan via FlickrKeeping a secret can be hard work. It may seem relatively easy to avoid mentioning your friend’s surprise birthday party or your co-worker’s recent breakup,…

Take it from a former cashier: Barcodes revolutionized the grocery store. No longer would an overworked and underpaid employee struggle to recall the difference between a fennel bulb…

In this month’s Nautilus story, “Safecracking the Brain,” I dug into the work of two research groups that are stealing tips from cryptology to better understand how our brains…

Probably the worst thing to happen to you, if you’re an animal playing the game of life, is to be eaten by some bigger beast. If you’ve already managed to successfully reproduce…

Back in the 1970s, you might open up a box of cereal one morning and out would fall a cardboard disk. It was a code wheel, which allowed preteen cryptographers to ply their trade.…

To a distraught parent whose child has gone missing, the unique genetic code embedded within every cell of the human body is of particular value. That code, spelled out in A’s, C’s,…

Dad was back. He played a little with the children, rubbed a few heads with his own, clawed at a wooden post, and then, standing erect with tail straight up, he backed towards a tree,…

Thomas’ parents had not been sure, since his brain injury, if he recognized them or even sensed their presence. Lying in a hospital bed he looked like a typical 12-year-old boy.…

Cross-section of a planarianJubal Harshaw via ShutterstockEarlier this year, scientists published a bizarre finding: A decapitated flatworm that grows a new head seems to retain memories…