All Stories
- Paleontology
A fossil reveals early relatives of spiders — armed with claws
A Utah fossil shows early relatives of spiders and scorpions already had distinctive front claws 500 million years ago.
- Quantum Physics
Just 10,000 quantum bits might crack internet encryption schemes
Quantum computers based on atoms could provide access to encrypted data much sooner than scientists thought.
- Science & Society
Pronatalists want more babies. Their solutions aren’t rooted in science
Conservative pronatalists want a return to the traditional nuclear family. But that family structure is at odds with how humans evolved.
- Planetary Science
A comet may have flipped its spin and entered into a death spiral
Gases jetting out of Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák may have caused it to reverse its spin in 2017, possibly leading to its eventual destruction.
- Animals
Secrets of the Bees zooms in on life in a hive
A new documentary available on Disney+ and Hulu appeals to our sense of wonder to highlight why bees need saving.
- Agriculture
Heavy soil tilling for agriculture can do more harm than good
The tiny seismic signals of rainwater moving through the ground show how heavy tilling damage soil.
- Quantum Physics
Quantum physics can confirm where someone is located
The concept of entanglement links far-flung particles. That relationship can prove that someone is in the location they claim to be.
- Animals
How snakes defy gravity to stand tall
Limbless tree snakes can lift most of their body into the air without toppling. They manage this by focusing all their bending forces at their base.
- Artificial Intelligence
Welcome to the weird world of AI agent teams
AI agents are starting to work in teams, but without careful organization, groups of bots can easily fall into chaos.
- Astronomy
A rare star in a tiny galaxy preserves a record of the early universe
Found in an ultrafaint dwarf galaxy, the ancient star’s unusual chemistry indicates it formed from gas enriched by a single early supernova.
- Animals
Watch the first video of a sperm whale birth captured by scientists
In a sperm whale birth recorded in more intimate detail than ever before, local whales huddled around the mother and lifted the calf to the surface.
- Physics
Water has a newfound ‘critical point’ that may help explain its quirks
At cold temperatures, water has two different liquid phases, which become one at the critical point. The discovery could help explain water’s quirks.
