Cosmology
Why the Nobel Prize might need a makeover
In Losing the Nobel Prize, astrophysicist Brian Keating discusses the downsides of science’s top honor.
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Cover Story
Are we ready for the deadly heat waves of the future?
As heat waves become more common, cities try to respond.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Planetary Science
This spinning moon shows where debris from giant impacts fell
A new map shows that light-colored lunar plains point back to huge impact basins, raising questions about the age and history of the moon.
Notebook
Physics
STEVE the aurora makes its debut in mauve
A newly discovered type of aurora is a visible version of usually invisible charged particles drifting in the upper atmosphere.
Features
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Flying insects tell tales of long-distance migrations
Researchers are asking big questions about animal movements and pest control by tracking tiny insects in flight.
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How physicists will remember Stephen Hawking
Researchers reflect on Stephen Hawking's contributions to the field and the cosmological puzzles he left behind.
More Stories from the April 14, 2018 issue
- Astronomy
We probably won’t hear from aliens. But by the time we do, they’ll be dead.
Astronomers build on the Drake Equation to probe the chance that humans will find existing aliens. The answer: Not likely.
- Animals
Dino-bird had wings made for flapping, not just gliding
Archaeopteryx fossils suggest the dino-birds were capable of flapping their wings in flight.
- Anthropology
Ancient climate shifts may have sparked human ingenuity and networking
Stone tools signal rise of social networking by 320,000 years ago in East Africa, researchers argue.
- Life
Inked mice hint at how tattoos persist in people
Tattoos in mice may persist due to an immune response, challenging currently held beliefs about how the skin retains tattoos.
- Health & Medicine
How obesity makes it harder to taste
Mice that gained excessive weight on a high-fat diet also lost a quarter of their taste buds.
- Science & Society
Kids are starting to picture scientists as women
An analysis of studies asking kids to draw a scientist finds that the number of females drawn has increased over the last 50 years.
- Health & Medicine
Male birth control pill passes a safety test
A prototype contraceptive for men safely reduced testosterone and other reproductive hormones during a month-long treatment.
- Earth
False alarms may be a necessary part of earthquake early warnings
To give enough time to take protective action, earthquake warning systems may have to issue alerts long before it’s clear how strong the quake will be.
- Life
Earwigs take origami to extremes to fold their wings
Stretchy joints let earwig wings flip quickly between folded and unfurled.
- Science & Society
Why science still can’t pinpoint a mass shooter in the making
Arguments flare over mass public shootings that remain scientifically mysterious.
- Planetary Science
Venus may be home to a new kind of tectonics
Venus’ surface seems to be divided into jostling blocks of crust, defying conventional wisdom about how the surfaces of rocky planets work.
- Animals
Humpback whale bumps have marine biologists stumped
Christine Gabriele is taking tissue samples from humpback whales in Hawaii to determine why more and more have nodular dermatitis.
- Life
Fossils sparked Charles Darwin’s imagination
Darwin’s Fossils recounts how finding extinct species in South America helped Charles Darwin develop his theory of evolution.
- Animals
The truth about animals isn’t always pretty
The Truth About Animals digs up surprising stories about sloths, pandas, penguins and other wildly misunderstood wildlife.
- Health & Medicine
50 years on, vaccines have eliminated measles from the Americas
Thanks to high vaccination rates, measles has mostly disappeared from the Americas.
