Topic
Science
Research, discovery, and the human stories behind the science — explained clearly and sourced carefully.
9 Articles Published
PCOS Is Now PMOS: What the Name Change Means
For more than a century, one of the most common hormone disorders in the world has had the wrong name. Polycystic ovary syndrome — PCOS — has officially been renamed polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, or PMOS. The change, published in The Lancet, comes after 14 years of global collaboration involving 56 organizations and input from over 22,000 patients and health professionals. The problem with the old name was fundamental. The "cysts" it refers to are not actually cysts — they are arrested ovarian follicles, and some patients do not even have them. Worse, the name reduced a complex, multisystem hormonal condition to a single organ, contributing to decades of misdiagnosis and overlooked metabolic risk. Here is what the new name actually means, and why it matters for the 170 million women living with the condition. Read the full story below.
By Akber BukhariJun 18, 2026
What Decades of Research on Family Estrangement Actually Found
Until about 2015, family estrangement was one of the most common experiences nobody studied. Karl Pillemer at Cornell was stunned to find 27 percent of Americans were currently estranged from a family member. Here is what the research — slowly, carefully assembled across two decades — actually found
By Akber BukhariApr 23, 2026
The Real Reason You Feel Better After Crying (It's Not What the Internet Says)
The viral version says your tears contain a painkiller six times stronger than morphine. The actual research — conducted across 35 countries, published in peer-reviewed journals, involving thousands of participants — is more nuanced, more honest, and considerably more interesting.
By Akber BukhariApr 21, 2026
Scientists Actually Mapped Where Emotions Live in the Body. Here's What They Found.
In 2013, a team of Finnish researchers gave 701 people a blank outline of a human body and asked them to colour where they felt each emotion. The results — published in one of the world's most prestigious scientific journals — were consistent across cultures and changed how scientists think about the relationship between the body and the mind
By Akber BukhariApr 21, 2026
You Would Need Wings the Size of a Bus. The Science of Why Humans Can Never Fly — and What It Reveals About the Most Extraordinary Bodies That Ever Existed.
Scientists have calculated that an average human would need a wingspan of at least 6.7 metres — roughly 22 feet — to generate enough lift to fly. That's the wingspan of a small aircraft. And wings would be the least of your problems.
By Akber BukhariApr 19, 2026
The Science of Why Volcanoes Don't Explode Immediately — and What That Has to Do With Everything That Eventually Does
Mount St. Helens shook for two months and recorded more than 10,000 earthquakes before it exploded. The pressure had been building for 123 years. The science of why volcanoes don't erupt immediately turns out to be one of the most precise explanations in nature for why nothing that eventually breaks does so without warning.
By Akber BukhariApr 19, 2026
Why the Human Brain Is Wired to Avoid Admitting Mistakes — and What History's Biggest Cover-Ups Reveal About It
In 1957, a psychologist named Leon Festinger proved that human beings will rewrite reality rather than admit they are wrong. History's greatest cover-ups didn't happen because powerful people were uniquely evil. They happened because the human brain was designed to protect itself from a very specific kind of pain
By Akber BukhariApr 19, 2026
A 300-Year-Old Riddle Was Finally Answered. The Answer Was Disturbing.
In 1688, a philosopher asked a riddle about blindness and sight. It took 315 years and five surgeries to answer it. The answer unsettled everything we thought we knew about how we see.
By Akber BukhariMar 28, 2026
She Wasn't Allowed to Sign Her Own Name
Margaret A. Wilcox invented the technology inside every car, truck, train, and airplane on Earth. She wasn't allowed to patent it under her own name. Ford used her idea. History forgot her name. Almost no one has ever heard it.
By Akber BukhariMar 24, 2026