HowStuffWorks_Science

What's that sour taste in your mouth all about? Explore the science of sour and watch a giant turtle wield gummy candies as a weapon in a weird Japanese commercial.

According to researchers, your personality shapes your musical tastes more than your socioeconomic status, gender, age or cultural background. Rock on!

The world of scent is a heady, powerful one, summoning memories and poking at nostalgia. Find out why this most direct of the senses, smell, is a cornerstone of thinking.

Humans have pushed the parasitic Guinea worm to the very brink of extinction, but our inhuman foe is craftier than you might think.

Rats, like humans, are one of the most resilient mammal species on the planet. And while they've long been maligned for their disease-vector shenanigans, these unlovable scamps don't get the respect they deserve.

Today, the surface of Venus is like a high-pressure pizza oven filled with sulfuric acid vapor. But it may have once been habitable, and that could change our search for extraterrestrial life.

Join Robert as he discusses how "fake" pro-wrestling factors into our oh-so-fake world, according to economist and mathematician Eric Weinstein.

Sure the eyes can suss out a lot about your environment, but don't shortchange your schnoz - it can detect more than a trillion smells. Why? Because for our ancestors, it might've been the difference between life and death.

Scientists have created the world's first fully autonomous, squishy robot. Learn how its little balloon tentacles work and where its creators want it to go next.

Helicopter blades and other fast spinning objects often produce strange effects on camera. Lauren explains why.

Stars are insanely far away. Science fiction writers have solved the problem with the "warp drive," which allows future humans to travel faster than light, crossing the vast emptiness of space.

Cuttelfish had number sense, giving them the math prowess of a primate or infant human, so chew on that -- and maybe don't chew on cuttlefish when they're on the menu.

According to the market research company Forrester, robots will eliminate 6% of all jobs in the US by 2021. And Walmart seems to be getting a head start.

Science suggests it's possible to erase specific memories. But even if we can, should we?

Toyota has created a cutting edge simulator designed to help racing teams become familiar with every track in all sorts of conditions. It’s an incredible machine. And simulations are playing an important role in our journey into the future.

Can a government ban a thought? As Orwellian as it may sound, North Korean officials are attempting to make certain phrases illegal, even in casual conversation. Join Ben Bowlin for a closer look at the new edict, the nature of censorship and more.

China’s Tiangong-1 space station will come crashing down to Earth sometime next year. What went wrong?

The government IS NOT beaming microwave subliminal messages into your head. But here's the crazy part: the technology to do it exists.

When is a whisper something more than a hushed tone detected by your brain? When it sends chills of pleasure down your spine. Find out why some people seek out human whisperers - voice and sound artists who specialize in creating "mind bubbles."

From Microsoft's epic Tay chatbot debacle to Google's romance-novel-raised A.I., we look at some of the recent successes (and failures) in getting machines to talk.

This prehistoric monument not only deserves a soft-rock power ballad but a few good theories as to why it exists in the first place. Find out if aliens and Druids have anything to do with this majestic pile of rocks.

Julie is taking 100 days to try and get better at the accordion. Watch her progress here.

Can a joke literally kill you? Monty Python seems to think so. Learn how in this video from Stuff to Blow Your Mind.

Marilyn Monroe's rendition of Happy Birthday to President Kennedy would've been ho-hum if it hadn't been for the breathy delivery. Find out what high frequency breathy voices and husky low frequency ones betray about our physical selves.

When it comes to optical illusions it’s pretty easy to jailbreak the operating system of your mind and load a new program onto it. Find out why your visual system willingly makes errors in interpretation.