The Black Death was the first and deadliest wave of the second plague pandemic, a series of plague outbreaks that reshaped Eurasia and North Africa from the fourteenth century onward. Between the late 1340s and early 1350s, plague spread from central Eurasia through the Black Sea and Mediterranean worlds into Europe, the Middle East, and…
Are we alone in the universe? It is one of the oldest questions humans have asked, but scientists can now investigate it with tools that would have been unimaginable only a few decades ago. Astronomers have confirmed thousands of planets beyond our solar system. Space missions are investigating potentially habitable worlds in our own solar…
We all grew up believing trees grow out of the soil. Roots reach into the dirt, pulling up what they need to build towering trunks, branches, and leaves. But modern science reveals a far more surprising truth: the vast majority of a tree’s dry mass consists of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, with carbon entering primarily…
Artificial intelligence is transforming our world, but it comes with a surprising cost. Discover how much water AI really uses, the massive electricity demands of data centers, and the other resources powering modern AI.
Göbekli Tepe stands as one of humanity’s greatest mysteries — a 12,000-year-old temple complex built by hunter-gatherers and deliberately buried beneath the earth. With its towering T-shaped pillars carved with strange and powerful symbols, the site challenges everything we thought we knew about the origins of civilization. Only a fraction has been uncovered. What secrets are still waiting to be revealed?
Technology has changed far more than the devices people use every day. It has changed how information moves, how businesses operate, how healthcare is delivered, how people learn, how work is organized, and how individuals interact with one another. That transformation has produced enormous benefits. Digital technologies can make information easier to access, connect people…
Cannabis laws around the world have changed considerably in recent years, but there is still no single global approach to the drug. A small number of countries have legalized cannabis for non-medical use, while others allow limited possession or home cultivation, operate medical-cannabis programs, tolerate certain forms of retail sales, or have reduced criminal penalties…
There is no single global drug problem. UNODC estimates that about 331 million people used drugs in 2024. Most of them used cannabis. Opioids, however, account for a much larger share of drug-related deaths. At the same time, the cocaine market continues to expand, while new synthetic opioids continue to emerge, sometimes in forms that…
Government collects and spends enormous amounts of public money. Much of that spending pays for essential services such as healthcare, education, infrastructure, public safety and social programs. But not every dollar is necessarily spent efficiently. Government waste generally refers to public resources being used inefficiently, unnecessarily or without achieving the intended value or result. Waste…
Employment Insurance is one of Canada’s largest social programs, providing temporary financial assistance to eligible workers who lose employment or experience other qualifying circumstances. But as the program handles millions of applications each year, the federal government continues to face the challenge of detecting fraud, recovering improper payments and protecting public funds. The latest federal…