Recreational DNA testing kits have exploded in popularity; maybe you even received one as a Mother’s Day gift. Lots of folks find their way to companies like AncestryDNA or 23andMe through an interest in genetic genealogy. But as Boston University’s Catharine Wang writes, many consumers decide to go further than just finding out their family origins. Thanks to a universe of third-party applications and online forums, people are digging deeper into their raw DNA data reports.

Big data is exploding too, especially in the world of astronomy. Observatories are gathering an exponentially greater amount of data every day – so much that it will take years to uncover all the hidden signals buried in the archives, writes Eileen Meyer of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

And, many misleading statements have been put out by the Trump administration – and by President Trump himself. University of Washington’s Michael Blake explains why these falsehoods would be more aptly described as bullshit and why they are more dangerous than plain lies.