In 1758, Swedish physician and father of modern taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus, named the species to which we all belong Homo sapiens. Since then, other taxonomists have suggested there isn’t sufficient difference between the genera Homo and Pan (the genus of the chimpanzee and bonobo), arguing that we should really be called Pan sapiens. Under either…

We at the Planetary Broadcast Network are not ashamed to admit it: everyone here is a big fan of Fission Girl, radio’s most famous nuclear-powered superhero. It’s been a great disappointment to our network that the show’s production has been temporarily delayed by robot worker shortages; however, we are beyond thrilled to have the chance…

We humans can be incredibly productive when we want to be—or when there is a quick buck to be made. Take for example, plastic; the first synthetic polymer was invented in 1869, and the first easily mass-produced plastic was formulated in 1907. In 1950, the world’s annual plastic production was around 2 tons; by 2015…