All Stories
- Astronomy
We probably won’t hear from aliens. But by the time we do, they’ll be dead.
Astronomers build on the Drake Equation to probe the chance that humans will find existing aliens. The answer: Not likely.
- Neuroscience
How biology breaks the ‘cerebral mystique’
The Biological Mind rejects the idea of the brain as the lone organ that makes us who we are. Our body and environment also factor in, Alan Jasanoff says.
- Neuroscience
Depression among new mothers is finally getting some attention
Scientists search new mothers’ minds for clues to postpartum depression.
- Quantum Physics
Superconductors may shed light on the black hole information paradox
Materials that conduct electricity without resistance might mimic black hole physics.
- Science & Society
What we do and don’t know about how to prevent gun violence
Background checks work to prevent gun violence; concealed carry and stand-your-ground laws don’t. But lack of data makes it hard to make other links.
- Anthropology
Museum mummies sport world’s oldest tattoo drawings
A wild bull and symbolic designs were imprinted on the bodies of two Egyptians at least 5,000 years ago.
- Science & Society
Discussing what matters when facts are not enough
Editor in Chief Nancy Shute reflects on finding common ground with science and policy.
- Neuroscience
Readers muse about memory, magnetic monopoles and more
Readers had questions about the physical trace of memory, magnetic monopoles, blowflies and more.
- Neuroscience
The debate over how long our brains keep making new nerve cells heats up
Adult humans don’t have newborn nerve cells in a memory-related part of the brain, a controversial paper suggests.
- Physics
Give double-layer graphene a twist and it superconducts
When graphene layers are twisted to a “magic angle,” the material superconducts.
- Health & Medicine
Newer drugs make hepatitis C-positive kidneys safe for transplant
People without hepatitis C did not contract the disease after receiving successful transplants of infected kidneys along with newer antiviral drugs.
- Earth
Diamonds reveal sign of the deepest water known inside Earth
A rare form of ice crystal in the gems could have formed only at the crushing pressures found in the mantle.
