All Stories
- Archaeology
Satellites are transforming how archaeologists study the past
In ‘Archaeology from Space,’ Sarah Parcak takes readers on a lively tour of the past, and archaeology of the 21st century.
- Climate
The Arctic is burning and Greenland is melting, thanks to record heat
A heat wave is melting Greenland’s ice and fueling blazes across the Arctic that are pumping record amounts of carbon dioxide into the air.
- Health & Medicine
Hospitalizations highlight potential dangers of e-cigs to teens’ lungs
E-cigarette use can harm the lungs, and eight Wisconsin teens who developed severe lung injuries after vaping may be the latest victims.
- Science & Society
Public trust that scientists work for the good of society is growing
More Americans trust the motives of scientists than of journalists or politicians.
- Astronomy
Stars may keep spinning fast, long into old age
NASA’s TESS telescope has spotted an old star that spins too fast for theory to explain, suggesting that stars may have a magnetic midlife crisis.
- Astronomy
A 3-D map of stars reveals the Milky Way’s warped shape
Our galaxy flaunts its curves in a chart of thousands of stars called Cepheids.
- Animals
There’s more to pufferfish than that goofy spiked balloon
Three odd things about pufferfishes: how they mate, how they bite and what’s up with no fish scales?
- Physics
Scientists seek materials that defy friction at the atomic level
Scientists investigate superslippery materials and other unusual friction feats.
- Life
Monkeys can use basic logic to decipher the order of items in a list
Rhesus macaque monkeys don’t need rewards to learn and remember how items are ranked in a list, a mental feat that may prove handy in the wild.
- Health & Medicine
A new study challenges the idea that the placenta has a microbiome
A large study of more than 500 women finds little evidence of microbes in the placenta, contrary to previous reports on the placental microbiome.
- Tech
Tiny magnetic coils could help break down microplastic pollution
Carbon nanotubes designed to release plastic-eroding chemicals could clear the long-lasting trash from waterways.
- Paleontology
This newfound predator may have terrorized the Cambrian seafloor
A newly discovered spaceship-shaped predator raked through the Cambrian seafloor in search of food.
