All Stories
- Astronomy
The mystery of Christiaan Huygens’ flawed telescopes may have been solved
The discovery of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, may have come despite its discoverer, Christiaan Huygens, needing eyeglasses.
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Where does plastic go when we’re done with it?
Editor in chief Nancy Shute discusses the ubiquity of microplastics in food, water, air and the body.
- Paleontology
310-million-year-old fossil blobs might not be jellyfish after all
An ancient animal called Essexella may have been a type of burrowing sea anemone, a new study proposes.
- Climate
By flying over atmospheric rivers, scientists aim to improve forecasts
Drenching atmospheric rivers are slamming the U.S. West Coast, bringing needed water but dangerous flooding. Here’s how scientists study these storms.
- Agriculture
Martian soil may have all the nutrients rice needs
Experiments hint that in the future, we might be able to grow the staple food in the soils of the Red Planet.
- Oceans
50 years ago, researchers discovered a leak in Earth’s oceans
An analysis of oceanic rocks hinted that ocean water drains into Earth’s mantle. How much makes it back into the ocean remains unclear.
- Earth
Earth’s inner core may be more complex than researchers thought
Seismic waves suggest that Earth has a hidden heart, a distinct region within the solid part of the planet’s core.
- Physics
Static electricity helps parasitic nematodes glom onto victims
The small electric charge generated by a moving insect is enough to affect the trajectory of a parasitic nematode’s leap so it lands right on its host.
- Health & Medicine
Maternal deaths in the U.S. keep climbing
New U.S. data show that as maternal deaths rise, a large gap between the maternal mortality rate of Black women compared with white women persists.
- Planetary Science
A volcano on Venus was spotted erupting in decades-old images
A new look at old data reveals an eruption on Venus in the 1990s that was probably similar to Hawaii’s Kilauea eruption in 2018.
- Earth
A moon-forming cataclysm could have also triggered Earth’s plate tectonics
Deeply buried remnants of a hypothetical planet that slammed into Earth 4.5 billion years ago might have set subduction into motion.
