All Stories
- Health & Medicine
Genes may shape how long we live more than once thought
New research challenges the view that human life span depends mostly on lifestyle. Genes may account for half the factors that determine longevity.
- Climate
Polar bears in the Barents Sea are staying fat despite rapid sea ice loss
Polar bears can struggle to adapt to climate change. Bears on Svalbard may be surviving on land prey and seals — but scientists warn it may not last.
- Health & Medicine
Artificial lungs kept a man alive until he could get a transplant
A new artificial lung system might keep people without lungs alive for weeks. Like real lungs, tubes and pumps oxygenate blood and maintain blood flow.
- Physics
A massive clump of dark matter may lurk in the Milky Way
Pulsating remnants of stars hint at a clump of invisible matter thought to be about 10 million times the sun’s mass.
- Anthropology
Whaling may have started 1,500 years earlier than already known
Specialized whale-bone harpoons from southern Brazil dating back 5,000 years suggest that Indigenous groups in the area were whalers.
- Genetics
AI tool AlphaGenome predicts how one typo can change a genetic story
The tool helps scientists understand how single-letter mutations and distant DNA regions influence gene activity, shaping health and disease risk.
- Health & Medicine
What the new nutrition guidelines get wrong about fat
New U.S. dietary guidelines promote eating full-fat foods and meats. But experts say nuts and seed oils are better sources of the two crucial fats we need.
- Health & Medicine
The brain’s response to a heart attack may worsen recovery
In mice, blocking heart-to-brain signals improved healing after a heart attack, hinting at new targets for cardiac therapy.
- Animals
Spider silk-making organs evolved due to a 400-million-year-old genetic oops
An ancient ancestor of spiders and relatives doubled its genome about 400 million years ago, setting the stage for the evolution of spinnerets.
- Archaeology
This ancient stick may be the world’s oldest handheld wooden tool
These 430,000-year-old wooden tools from Greece are a rare find and provide a glimpse at the technical know-how of our early human ancestors.
- Animals
Some vaccines are making progress in protecting vulnerable species
Vaccines can be a crucial conservation tool. But getting shots to wildlife, and developing them in the first place, is tough.
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The inner lives of animals
Editor in Chief Nancy Shute discusses how scientists are beginning to study animals’ emotions and personalities — from joy to individual temperament.
