Science
From mathematics and AI to medicine and psychology, The Optimist Daily features the latest news on discoveries, technological advances, and breakthroughs in the world of science. Our Science section is here to engage and enlighten you.
Antarctic whale populations are rebounding, but there's still more to do
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Good news: the Southern Ocean is filling with whales again. Humpback populations in Antarctica have nearly returned to pre-whaling levels, a rebound scientists say has been faster than almost anyone expected. Researchers conducting a survey near the South Read More...
Intermittent fasting works, but probably not how you think
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM “The main benefit of fasting is weight loss,” says Krista Varady, a professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois Chicago and a co-author of related research, and the data supports her. In a peer-reviewed clinical trial at the University of Read More...
2025: The year renewables finally outpaced global electricity demand growth
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Something shifted in the world’s energy system in 2025, and the numbers are hard to argue with. For the first time in modern history, clean energy generation grew faster than global electricity demand, meaning every new watt of power the world needed Read More...
Untracked daily walking beats step goals, and science explains why
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM When University of Sydney researchers published findings from a study of more than 22,000 adults who didn’t engage in structured exercise, the results were not what most health researchers anticipated. The study, published in the British Journal of Read More...
Spain’s donkey brigade has kept Doñana fire-free for nine years
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM By August 2025, fires had consumed nearly one million hectares (roughly 2.47 million acres) across Spain, the worst toll in three decades. Six regions, including Castilla y León, Galicia, and Andalusia, were declared disaster zones. The causes are familiar: Read More...
The sensory superpower that lets seals hunt in total darkness
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM When a fish moves through water, it doesn’t simply pass through and vanish. It leaves a trail of disturbed water behind it, something like the contrail of a plane across a clear sky. That trail is invisible to human eyes and fades within seconds, but to a Read More...
Germany’s coal mines are now Europe’s largest lake district
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM When the last miners left the open-cast lignite pits of eastern Germany’s Lusatia region, they left behind craters stretching more than 200 feet (60 meters) deep. What followed was not restoration in any conventional sense. It was construction: the Read More...
Earth Day at 56: why the 2026 theme carries more weight than usual
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM On April 22, 1970, roughly 20 million Americans took to the streets, campuses, and parks to demand that the government treat the environment as something worth protecting. At the time, rivers in the United States were catching fire. Lead was still in Read More...
Why Western scientists are turning to Indigenous knowledge
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Marco Hatch describes his own work with characteristic dry humor: "I'm a glorified clam counter." What he's actually doing is more complicated. As a marine ecologist at Western Washington University and an enrolled member of the Samish Indian Nation, Hatch is Read More...
Artemis II shows the moon can still unite a divided world
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM When 15 Girl Scouts in Pilot Mountain, North Carolina, gathered to watch the Artemis II launch, troop leader Heather Willard wasn't sure how captivated they'd be. Then the rocket lifted off. "All of the girls were mesmerized," she said. Across the Read More...