Science & Society
Stuck inside this winter? Try an at-home citizen science project
Researchers are in search of volunteers to look for solar jets, transcribe old weather logbooks, listen for threatened frogs and more.
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
Materials of the last century shaped modern life, but at a price
From our homes and cities to our electronics and clothing, the stuff of daily life is dramatically different from decades ago.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Paleontology
See stunning fossils of insects, fish and plants from an ancient Australian forest
Thousands of fossils at an Australian site show a rare glimpse into the continent’s wetter history over 11 million years ago.
Notebook
Animals
A 1,306-legged millipede is the first to live up to its name
Scientists have discovered the first true millipede, an elongated, threadlike creature with a whopping 1,306 legs.
Features
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How mindfulness-based training can give elite athletes a mental edge
Mindfulness and acceptance and commitment therapy are two types of training psychologists are using to bolster athletes’ mental health.
More Stories from the January 29, 2022 issue
- Life
Cleared tropical forests can regain ground surprisingly fast
Tropical forests can re-establish themselves on abandoned agricultural lands faster than expected, scientists say.
- Animals
Gut bacteria let vulture bees eat rotting flesh without getting sick
Acid-producing bacteria in the gut of vulture bees let these “weirdos of the bee world” safely snack on animal carcasses.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, researchers thought Americans outgrew marijuana
In the 1970s, it was thought that adults over age 25 may “outgrow” marijuana. Fifty years later, older adults are in on the action.
- Animals
Here’s how spider geckos survive on Earth’s hottest landscape
An analysis of the stomach contents of Misonne’s spider geckos shows there are more critters in the heart of Iran’s Lut Desert than meets the eye.
- Climate
Vikings may have fled Greenland to escape rising seas
Vikings abandoned Greenland in the 15th century. Lower temperatures, an expanding ice sheet and rising sea levels may have played a role in their departure.
- Astronomy
The Parker Solar Probe is the first spacecraft to visit the sun’s atmosphere
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe crossed a boundary between the sun’s atmosphere and interplanetary space that has been predicted for decades but never observed.
- Archaeology
Arctic hunter-gatherers were advanced ironworkers more than 2,000 years ago
Swedish excavations uncover furnaces and fire pits from a big metal operation run by a small-scale society, a new study finds.
- Planetary Science
Enceladus’ plumes might not come from an underground ocean
The celebrated plumes of Saturn’s moon Enceladus could come from pockets of watery mush in the moon’s icy shell, simulations suggest.
- Climate
Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier ice shelf could collapse within five years
The loss of Thwaites’ buttressing ice shelf could hasten the demise of the “Doomsday Glacier” and raise the risk of dramatic sea level rise.
- Life
A terrifying robot can thwart invasive mosquito fish
A robot designed to mimic a natural predator of mosquito fish can impair the survival and reproduction of this costly invasive species.
- Quantum Physics
Quantum physics requires imaginary numbers to explain reality
Quantum theory based only on real numbers fails to explain the results of two new experiments.
