All Stories
- Planetary Science
Mars’ potato-shaped moons could be the remains of a shredded asteroid
Phobos and Deimos could have formed from asteroid debris, a new study suggests. An upcoming sample return mission will help test the idea.
- Artificial Intelligence
Here’s why turning to AI to train future AIs may be a bad idea
If future AI models are trained on AI-generated content, they could end up producing more bias and nonsense, researchers caution.
- Climate
Climate change has amped up hurricane wind speeds by 29 kph on average
Every single Atlantic hurricane in 2024 had wind speeds supercharged by warming seas. One even jumped two categories of intensity.
- Cosmology
Einstein’s gravity endures despite a dark energy puzzle
The DESI project previously reported that dark energy — long thought to be constant — changes over time. A new analysis reaffirms that claim.
- Health & Medicine
Vaccines, fluoride, raw milk: How RFK Jr.’s views may shape public health
If confirmed as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, Kennedy could influence U.S. policy on vaccines, drugs and food safety.
- Life
Nature’s first fiber optics could light the way to internet innovation
Mineral crystals in heart cockles’ shells protect symbiotic algae from ultraviolet rays and could lead to innovations in internet infrastructure.
- Health & Medicine
Youth tobacco use has gone down, but the work isn’t over
In 2024, tobacco use among middle and high school students reached a record low, but new vapes and other products with nicotine keep coming.
- Health & Medicine
Keeping weight off may be stymied by fat cells’ ‘memory’ of obesity
Some genetic changes in fat cells don’t go away after weight loss, a study in mice and human cells suggests.
- Neuroscience
Some people don’t have a mind’s eye. Scientists want to know why
The senses of sight and sound are usually mingled in the brain, but not for people with aphantasia.
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Readers ask about self-correcting quantum computers, oobleck’s experimental value
Readers wondered if mayo qualifies as a non-Newtonian fluid, and X user @Lightning456243 asked how a quantum computer can identify its own errors.
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50 years on, Lucy still sparks our curiosity
Editor in chief Nancy Shute recounts the 50-year anniversary of the hominid's discovery, which upended the study of human evolution.
- Oceans
The world’s largest coral was discovered in the South Pacific
The behemoth coral, discovered in October in the Solomon Islands, is longer than a blue whale and older than the United States.
