Feature
- Climate
As wildfires worsen, science can help communities avoid destruction
Blazes sparked in wild lands are devastating communities worldwide. The only way to protect them, researchers say, is to re-engineer them.
- Health & Medicine
You’re probably eating enough protein, but maybe not the right mix
Protein is having a moment. But even if most people are eating enough protein, studies suggest they may not be eating the right mix.
- Health & Medicine
Are ultraprocessed foods truly addictive?
Ultraprocessed foods can create powerful pulls similar to those of alcohol, nicotine or opioids, with worrisome consequences for our health.
- Health & Medicine
Why are so many young people getting cancer?
Diagnoses for several cancers before age 50 have been increasing rapidly since the 1990s. Scientists don’t know why, but they have a few suspects.
- Health & Medicine
Cancer patients froze reproductive tissue as kids. Now they’re coming back for it
Saving reproductive tissue from kids treated for cancer before adolescence could give them a chance at having biological children later in life.
- Space
How a Harvard maverick forever changed our concept of the stars
At just 25, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin applied quantum physics to a treasure trove of astronomical observations to show that stars are mostly hydrogen and helium.
- Space
The Vera Rubin Observatory is ready to revolutionize astronomy
Sporting the world’s largest digital camera, the new telescope is poised to help solve some of the universe’s biggest mysteries.
- Math
See how fractals forever changed math and science
Over the last half 50 years, fractals have challenged ideas about geometry and pushed math, science and technology into unexpected areas.
- Earth
How hot can Earth get? Our planet’s climate history holds clues
Earth has survived huge temperature swings over eons of climate change. Humans might not be so lucky.
- 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.
- Oceans
Deep-sea mining could start soon — before we understand its risks
The U.S. push to mine international waters for metals defies global efforts to control and protect these fragile ecosystems.
- Animals
50 years after ‘Jaws,’ sharks face their own terror
Humans have driven sharks and their cousins to the brink of extinction. The health of the entire ocean is at stake.
