All Stories

  1. Animals

    A newly discovered cell helps pythons poop out the bones of their prey

    The cells helps the snakes absorb the bones of their prey — and might show up in other animals that chomp their meals whole.

    By
  2. Paleontology

    How an ancient marine predator snuck up on its prey

    Serrations at the edges of a fossilized flipper of the ancient marine reptile Temnodontosaurussuggests it may have been able to swim silently.

    By
  3. Planetary Science

    This star offers the earliest peek at the birth of a planetary system like ours

    A young sunlike star called HOPS 315 seems to host a swirling disk of gas giving rise to minerals that kick-start the planet formation process.

    By
  4. Humans

    No, shaken baby syndrome has not been discredited

    Defense lawyers have called shaken baby syndrome, or abusive head trauma, junk science. But doctors say shaking a baby is dangerous.

    By
  5. Space

    In a first, an image shows a dying star exploded twice to become a supernova 

    The image offers the first evidence for a previously unconfirmed origin story of type 1a supernovas.

    By
  6. Health & Medicine

    Protein signatures may one day tell brain diseases apart before symptoms

    Blood tests could pave the way for distinguishing between Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and some dementias, aiding early treatment for brain diseases.

    By
  7. Health & Medicine

    Organ age, not just your birthday, may determine your health risks

    Blood proteins that reveal some organs age faster than others — and that may predict disease and lifespan.

    By
  8. Artificial Intelligence

    Does the AI industry operate like a modern colonial empire?

    In Empire of AI, journalist Karen Hao investigates OpenAI and the social and environmental costs of a multinational tech arms race.

    By
  9. Paleontology

    How fast did dinosaurs really go? Birds walking in mud provide new clues

    Tracks of dinosaur footprints can hint at how fast the extinct animals moved. Here’s how guinea fowl can help fact-check those assumptions.

    By
  10. Space

    The biggest black hole smashup ever detected challenges physics theories

    Gravitational waves spotted by LIGO reveal two black holes, 140 and 100 times the mass of the sun, merged to become a 225 solar mass behemoth.

    By
  11. Space

    A newly discovered interstellar object might predate the solar system

    3I/ATLAS might be over 7 billion years old, a new study reports, which would make it the oldest comet known. But experts caution we need more data.

    By
  12. Chemistry

    Gut microbes may flush ‘forever chemicals’ from the body

    Experiments in mice show that some gut bacteria can absorb toxic PFAS chemicals, allowing animals to expel them through feces.

    By