All Stories

  1. Math puzzle: Imagine there’s no zero

    Solve the math puzzle from our February 2025 issue, based on the number system of mathematician James Foster.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Plastic shards permeate human brains

    A study of microplastics and nanoplastics in brains shows an astonishing increase over time.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Welcome to The Deep End, a new podcast about brain implants and depression

    This new six-part podcast follows the lives of people with severe depression who volunteered for deep brain stimulation.

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  4. Anthropology

    An African strontium map sheds light on the origins of enslaved people

    While genetic tests can reveal the ancestry of enslaved individuals, strontium analysis can now home in on where they actually grew up.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    A new kind of non-opioid painkiller gets FDA approval

    The new drug, called Journavx, is a non-opioid for treating short-term moderate to severe pain.

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  6. Animals

    Hotter cities? Here come the rats

    Well, rats. A study of 16 cities shows that higher ambient temperatures and loss of green space are associated with increasing rodent complaints.

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  7. Science & Society

    Do science dioramas still have a place in today’s museums?

    Science dioramas of yesteryear can highlight the biases of the time. Exhibit experts are reimagining, annotating — and sometimes mothballing — the scenes.

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  8. Earth

    Ancient rocks reveal when rivers began pouring nutrients into the sea

    Rivers began pumping weathered material into the sea about a billion years after Earth formed, suggesting continents may have gotten an early start.

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  9. Animals

    Wild baboons don’t recognize themselves in a mirror

    In a lab test, chimps and orangutans can recognize their own reflection. But in the wild, baboons seemingly can’t do the same.

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  10. Neuroscience

    Scratching an itch is so good, and so bad

    The motion kicks off inflammation but may also combat harmful bacteria 

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  11. Particle Physics

    A tiny neutrino detector scored big at a nuclear reactor

    A compact method of detecting neutrinos provides new tests of physics theories and could lead to new reactor-monitoring methods.

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  12. Animals

    Feeding sharks ‘junk food’ takes a toll on their health

    Many blacktip reef sharks in French Polynesia are commonly fed by tourists. But the low-quality diet is changing the sharks’ behavior and physiology.

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