Quantum Physics
‘From Data to Quanta’ defends Niels Bohr’s view of quantum mechanics
In his new book, philosopher Slobodan Perović corrects misconceptions about physicist Niels Bohr’s work.
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
Now that computers connect us all, for better and worse, what’s next?
The digital revolution has brought chess-playing robots, self-driving cars, curated newsfeeds — and new ethical challenges.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Space
The heart of the Milky Way looks like contemporary art in this new radio image
The MeerKAT telescope array in South Africa provided this image of radio emissions from the center of our galaxy using data taken over three years.
Notebook
Physics
An ‘everlasting’ bubble endured more than a year without popping
One of the bubbles, made with water, glycerol and microparticles, lasted 465 days before popping.
Features
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Why do some people succeed when others fail? Outliers provide clues
A close look at outliers — people or communities that defy expectations — reveals what could be.
More Stories from the February 26, 2022 issue
- Animals
Scientists vacuumed animal DNA out of thin air for the first time
The ability to sniff out animals’ airborne genetic material has been on researchers’ wish list for over a decade.
- Health & Medicine
Antimicrobial resistance is a leading cause of death globally
In more than 70 percent of the 1.27 million deaths caused by antimicrobial resistance, infections didn’t respond to two classes of first-line antibiotics.
- Animals
An Arctic hare traveled at least 388 kilometers in a record-breaking journey
An Arctic hare’s dash across northern Canada, the longest seen among hares and their relatives, is changing how scientists think about tundra ecology.
- Archaeology
Gold and silver tubes in a Russian museum are the oldest known drinking straws
Long metal tubes enabled communal beer drinking more than 5,000 years ago, scientists say.
- Animals
A new device helps frogs regrow working legs after an amputation
A single treatment shortly after adult frogs lost part of their legs spurred regrowth of limbs useful for swimming, standing and kicking.
- Artificial Intelligence
How AI can identify people even in anonymized datasets
A neural network identified a majority of anonymous mobile phone service subscribers using details about their weekly social interactions.
- Climate
Satellites have located the world’s methane ‘ultra-emitters’
Plugging leaks from methane ultra-emitters would make a dent in greenhouse gas emissions — and be cost-effective for those countries, scientists say.
- Planetary Science
Machine learning points to prime places in Antarctica to find meteorites
Using data on how ice moves across Antarctica, researchers identified more than 600 spots where space rocks may gather on the southern continent.
- Animals
Gory footage confirms orca pods can kill adult blue whales
For the first time, three recorded events show that orcas do hunt and eat blue whales using coordinated attacks that have worked on other large whales.
- Astronomy
The James Webb Space Telescope has reached its new home at last
The most powerful telescope ever launched still has a long to-do list before it can start doing science.
- Animals
Male elephant seals aim to get huge or die trying
Males will risk death to eat and grow as large as possible, since only the biggest males mate. But females aim for long-term survival.
- Archaeology
A taste for wild cereal sowed farming’s spread in ancient Europe
Balkan groups collected and ate wild cereal grains several millennia before domesticated cereals reached Europe.
- Humans
50 years ago, freezing sperm faced scientific skepticism
In 1972, scientists debated the long-term viability of frozen sperm. Fifty years later, children have been conceived with sperm frozen for decades.
- Animals
Vinegar eels can synchronize swim
Swarming, swimming nematodes can move together like fish and also synchronize their wiggling — an ability rare in the animal kingdom.
- Planetary Science
Earth has a second known ‘Trojan asteroid’ that shares its orbit
A recently found space rock is about one kilometer wide, orbits ahead of Earth around the sun and will stick around for at least 4,000 years.
- Oceans
The past’s extreme ocean heat waves are now the new normal
Marine heat waves that were rare more than a century ago now routinely occur in more than half of global ocean, suggesting we’ve hit a “point of no return.”
- Health & Medicine
Genetically engineered immune cells have kept two people cancer-free for a decade
Long-lasting leukemia remission prompts doctors to call CAR-T cell therapy a ‘cure’ for some.
