News
- Earth
This pictogram is one of the oldest known accounts of earthquakes in the Americas
The Telleriano-Remensis, a famous codex written by a pre-Hispanic civilization, describes 12 quakes that rocked the Americas from 1460 to 1542.
- Health & Medicine
How personalized brain organoids could help us demystify disorders
Personalized clusters of brain cells made from people with Rett syndrome had abnormal activity, showing potential for studying how human brains go awry.
- Physics
New ‘vortex beams’ of atoms and molecules are the first of their kind
Twisted beams of atoms and molecules join other types of corkscrew beams made of light or electrons.
- Cosmology
Astronomers may have seen a star gulp down a black hole and explode
It took sleuthing through data collected by a variety of observatories to piece together the first firm evidence of a theorized cosmic phenomenon.
- Animals
Some wasps’ nests glow green under ultraviolet light
Some Asian paper wasps’ nests fluoresce so brilliantly that the glow is visible from up to 20 meters away.
- Life
Fires may have affected up to 85 percent of threatened Amazon species
Since 2001, fires in the Amazon have impacted up to about 190,000 square kilometers — roughly the size of Washington state.
- Anthropology
Stone Age humans or their relatives occasionally trekked through a green Arabia
Hominids periodically inhabited ancient Arabia starting around 400,000 years ago when lakes temporarily formed as a result of monsoons, a study finds.
- Animals
Streetlights, especially super bright LEDs, may harm insect populations
Greenery under streetlights housed half as many caterpillars as darker areas did, researchers found.
- Health & Medicine
These charts show that COVID-19 vaccines are doing their job
COVID-19 shots may not always prevent infections, but for now, they are keeping the vast majority of vaccinated people out of the hospital.
- Astronomy
New ideas on what makes a planet habitable could reshape the search for life
New definitions of “habitable worlds” could include planets with global oceans under a steamy hydrogen atmosphere or exclude ones that started out habitable but lost all their water.
- Life
An incredibly resilient coral in the Great Barrier Reef offers hope for the future
At more than 400 years old, a massive coral off the coast of Australia has endured as many as 80 cyclones and 99 bleaching events.
- Animals
Female hummingbirds may sport flashy feathers to avoid being harassed
Some female white-necked jacobin hummingbirds boast bright blue plumage that’s similar to males. The colors may help females blend in to avoid attacks.
