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Planetary Science

Laser experiments suggest helium rain falls on Jupiter

Compressing a hydrogen and helium mixture with lasers shows that the two elements separate at pressures found within gas giant planets.

Anthropology

Hunter-gatherers first launched violent raids at least 13,400 years ago

Skeletons from an ancient African cemetery bear the oldest known signs of small-scale warfare.

Archaeology

To find answers about the 1921 race massacre, Tulsa digs up its painful past

A century ago, hundreds of people died in a horrific eruption of racial violence in Tulsa. A team of researchers may have found a mass grave from the event.

Health & Medicine

Here are answers to 3 persistent questions about the coronavirus’s origins

Calls to double down on investigations into where SARS-CoV-2 came from — nature or a lab accident — are rising as answers remain scarce.

Particle Physics

In a first, neutrinos were caught interacting at the Large Hadron Collider

Despite the LHC’s fame, all its detectors were oblivious to neutrinos. But not anymore.

Climate

The last 30 years were the hottest on record for the United States

Typical temps across large swaths of the country are now 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit higher than their 20th-century averages.

Neuroscience

Playing brain training games regularly doesn’t boost brainpower

Comparing brain training program users with those who don’t do the mini brain workouts, scientists found no proof that the regimens boosted brainpower.

Science & Society

A new memoir tells the life story of NASA ‘hidden figure’ Katherine Johnson

"My Remarkable Journey" gives the backstory of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, the central character of the 2016 film "Hidden Figures."

Archaeology

The oldest known tattoo tools were found at an ancient Tennessee site

Sharpened turkey leg bones may have served as tattoo needles between 5,520 and 3,620 years ago, at least a millennium earlier than previously thought.

Animals

Gray wolves scare deer from roads, reducing dangerous collisions

The predators use roads as travel corridors, creating “a landscape of fear” that keeps deer away and saves millions of dollars a year, a study finds.

Genetics

A gene-based therapy partially restored a blind man’s vision

Light-activated proteins inserted in eye nerve cells and special goggles help the man, who lost his sight due to retinitis pigmentosa, see objects.

Health & Medicine

The CDC’s changes to mask guidelines raised questions. Here are 6 answers

Experts weigh in on the U.S. CDC’s recommendation fully vaccinated individuals removing masks indoors and what it means for the pandemic’s future.