All Stories
- Animals
Eavesdropping on fish could help us keep better tabs on underwater worlds
Scientists are on a quest to log all the sounds of fish communication. The result could lead to better monitoring of ecosystems and fish behavior.
- Health & Medicine
A new study has linked microplastics to heart attacks and strokes. Here’s what we know
Patients with microplastics in their arteries were 4.5 times more likely to have a heart attack, stroke or die within the next three years.
- Life
During a total solar eclipse, some colors really pop. Here’s why
As a solar eclipse approaches totality and our eyes adjust to dimming light, our color vision changes. It’s called the Purkinje effect.
- Genetics
Here’s why some pigeons do backflips
Meet the scientist homing in on the genes involved in making parlor roller pigeons do backward somersaults.
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Finally, scientists are making progress on long COVID
Editor in chief Nancy Shute discusses researchers' efforts to uncover long COVID's mysteries.
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- Neuroscience
Chickadees use memory ‘bar codes’ to find their hidden food stashes
Unique subsets of neurons in a chickadee’s memory center light up for each distinct cache, hinting at how episodic memories are encoded in the brain.
- Neuroscience
Here’s how magnetic fields shape desert ants’ brains
Exposure to a tweaked magnetic field scrambled desert ants’ efforts to learn where home is — and affected neuron connections in a key part of the brain.
- Health & Medicine
How patient-led research could speed up medical innovation
People with long COVID, ME/CFS and other chronic conditions are taking up science to find symptom relief and inspire new directions for professional scientists.
- Earth
Earth’s oldest known earthquake was probably triggered by plate tectonics
Billion-year-old rocks in South Africa hold evidence for the onset of plate tectonics early in Earth’s history.
- Earth
Climate change is changing how we keep time
Polar ice sheets are melting faster, slowing Earth’s spin. That is changing how we synchronize our clocks to tell time.
- Space
A new image reveals magnetic fields around our galaxy’s central black hole
Astronomers have captured polarized light coming from the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole, giving insight into its magnetic fields.
