All Stories
- Animals
These male spiders catapult away to avoid being cannibalized after sex
In a leap for survival, male Philoponella prominens spiders leverage hydraulic pressure to extend leg joints and fling themselves off hungry females.
- Life
‘The Last Days of the Dinosaurs’ tells a tale of destruction and recovery
A new book takes readers back in time to see how an asteroid strike and the dinosaur extinction shaped life on Earth.
- Physics
Gravitational waves gave a new black hole a high-speed ‘kick’
Ripples in spacetime revealed that two black holes united into one, which then sped off at around 5 million kilometers per hour.
- Paleontology
Glowing spider fossils may exist thanks to tiny algae’s goo
Analyzing 22-million-year-old spider fossils from France revealed that they were covered in a tarry black substance that fluoresces.
- Particle Physics
The Large Hadron Collider has restarted with upgraded proton-smashing potential
Physicists will start taking data this summer once the revamped Large Hadron Collider gets up to full speed.
- Particle Physics
Muons spill secrets about Earth’s hidden structures
Tracking travel patterns of subatomic particles called muons helps reveal the inner worlds of pyramids, volcanoes and more.
- Health & Medicine
What experts told me to do after my positive COVID-19 at-home test
Rapid at-home tests mean many COVID-19 cases go unreported, but they’re a great tool for deciding when to leave isolation. I found that out firsthand.
- Health & Medicine
Why taking medications during pregnancy is so confusing
It's hard to know what new drugs are safe when medical research excludes pregnant people.
- Astronomy
‘Goldilocks’ stars may pose challenges for any nearby habitable planets
Orange dwarfs emit far-ultraviolet light long after birth, stressing the atmospheres of potentially life-bearing worlds.
- Planetary Science
U.S. planetary scientists want to explore Uranus and Enceladus next
A report on recommendations for the next 10 years of U.S. planetary science prioritizes sending an orbiter to Uranus and an “orbilander” to Enceladus.
- Planetary Science
Europa may have much more shallow liquid water than scientists thought
Mysterious pairs of ridges scar Jupiter’s moon Europa. Analyzing a similar set in Greenland suggests shallow water is behind the features’ formation.
- Plants
These flowers lure pollinators to their deaths. There’s a new twist on how
Some jack-in-the-pulpit plants may use sex to lure pollinators. That's confusing for male fungus gnats — and deadly.
