Feature
- Microbes
How warming is shifting microbial worlds
Climate change is affecting microbes, and that has implications for all life on Earth.
- Animals
Wild monkeys invaded Florida. Should people protect them?
A colony of African vervets in Dania Beach raises big questions about how humans can and should manage nonnative species.
- Artificial Intelligence
Have we entered a new age of AI-enabled scientific discovery?
Some say we’ve entered a new age of AI-enabled scientific discovery. But human insight and creativity still can’t be automated.
- Physics
The only U.S. particle collider shuts down – so a new one may rise
The famed collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory has ended operations, but if all goes to plan, a new collider will rise from its ashes.
- Health & Medicine
Tear gas and pepper spray can have lasting health effects
The chemicals are widely used for crowd control, but their long-term health risks are poorly understood.
- Animals
Animals experience joy. Scientists want to measure it
Scientists have long focused on quantifying fear and other negative emotions in animals. Now they’re trying to measure positive feelings — and it’s a challenge.
- Life
There’s life beneath the snow, but it’s at risk of melting away
An array of animals and plants survive winter in the subnivium, nature’s igloo. But climate change is threatening this hidden seasonal ecosystem.
- Animals
Animal personalities can play a big role in saving species
From bold foxes to gregarious birds, animals’ personalities are increasingly being seen as crucial to conservation efforts.
- Computing
Computer science can help abuse and trafficking survivors regain safety
Nicola Dell, a computer scientist studying the role of technology in intimate partner violence, cofounded the Center to End Technology Abuse.
- Health & Medicine
He made beer that’s also a vaccine. Now controversy is brewing
An NIH scientist’s maverick approach reveals legal, ethical, moral, scientific and social challenges to developing potentially life-saving vaccines.
- Psychology
As gambling addiction spreads, one scientist’s work reveals timely insights
Psychiatrist Robert Custer spent his life convincing doctors that compulsive gambling was not an impulse control problem. Today, his research is foundational for diagnosis and treatment.
- Artificial Intelligence
A quantum trick helps trim bloated AI models
Machine learning techniques that make use of tensor networks could manipulate data more efficiently and help open the black box of AI models.
