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A turtle swims out from a fishing net.
Food & Environment

How new fishing tech can reduce bycatch of turtles and other creatures

By Gennaro Tomma

Nets equipped with water bottles and other tricks can help save some species, while allowing fisherman to still catch others

Illustration shows big blue blobs (proteins) to which are attached strings of colored shapes (sugar structures).
Living World

Sweet! The cell’s sugary coating comes into view

By Esther Landhuis

Built from thickets of glucose, galactose, mannose and more, the glycome plays key roles in cell communication, immunity and the blood-brain barrier

Photograph of sandy sea bottom covered in round nodules. The light is dim and greeny blue.
Physical World

Mining the deep ocean

By Natasha Gilbert

Renewable technologies need a multitude of critical minerals. The seabed could supply these riches. But at what cost?

Animation shows a black-and-white voronoi diagram growing from points within a plane. Each “seed” gives rise to a cell, based on uniform outward growth from the initial point. The cells create a tessellation pattern over the entire plane.
Society

A light in the dark: Finding the good in the natural world

By KC Cole

OPINION: Is it absurd to think that science can inform our values? Not at all, says writer KC Cole.

A conceptual illustration of a person holding cradling her torso, which is colorful, glowing and special-looking.
The Mind

What is wisdom, and can it be taught?

By Emily Laber-Warren

Scientists are trying to name the qualities that make someone wise and figure out how to cultivate them

Illustration shows scientists evaluating three different scales that compare the weight of orange, yellow and blue balls, each representing a type of neutrino.
Physical World

For particle physicists working with neutrinos, almost nothing is everything

Several massive multimillion dollar experiments should soon reveal more about the nature of these ghostly particles

By Nicola Jones
Conceptual illustration of a woman looking at her reflection.
The Mind

Brain, think on thyself

What the science of self-awareness can tell us about confident decision-making

By Tim Vernimmen
A curled-up dormouse sleeping in a nest of grass
Living World

The strange animals that control their body heat

By Hannah Thomasy

Some creatures can dramatically alter their internal temperature — a strategy called heterothermy — and outlast storms, floods and predators

A graphic shows a diverse selection of foods with just one protein source, a single shrimp.
Living World

The curious case of low-protein diets

By Amber Dance

In the lab, animals live longer on less of the stuff. How could this be, and what does it mean for human aging?

Illustration of a guide pulling back a veil of trees, showing the path ahead, as another person walks through a forest.
The Mind

Looking for an ADHD coach? Choose carefully

By Katherine Ellison

As diagnoses surge, so does an unregulated coaching industry

Two yellow-colored bodies on the side of an image send out branches that join in the middle.
Living World

Tales of a very clever slime mold

By Tim Vernimmen

In its quest to feed, avoid nasty substances and just generally live its life, the brainless, one-celled Physarum polycephalum performs some impressive tricks of learning and memory

Knobby pillars of salt in a mountain cavern
Physical World

The cataclysmic flood that wasn’t

By Dana Mackenzie

Researchers have long believed that a sudden, massive deluge filled a dry, salt-filled Mediterranean some 5 million years ago. Turns out that probably didn't happen, but there was still drama aplenty.

Multimedia

Several white foxes sit in rows of small cages on a fur farm.
Health & Disease

Why disease outbreaks on Chinese fur farms are a serious risk to public health

By Jane Qiu

Farming animals for fur is not only cruel but also provides an ideal environment for viruses to mix and cross over into humans

Conceptual illustration shows a woman standing by a wall adorned with an optimistic green graph of sales going up, while behind the wall is a man in a shadowy scene with a big dollar sign sneaking out a back door.
Society

Corporate crime persists in the shadows

By Elise Hansen

Unlike violent crimes, there are no comprehensive national statistics on the serious misconduct of companies. Some see a need for change.

A face in profile against a background of books, sarcophagi and scent molecules.
Society

Recreating the smells of history

By Kaja Šeruga

Using chemistry, archival records and AI, scientists are reviving the aromas of old libraries, mummies and battlefields

Image of the Earth de-stacked, like a Russian doll, showing its different layers: crust, mantle and outer and inner cores.
Physical World

Meet the mysterious electrides

By Rachel Brazil

These chemical oddities may explain why Earth seems to be deficient in certain elements — and could prove useful in catalysts and more

Cartoon microbes on a winner’s podium are surrounded by others participating in various winter sports.
Living World

Microbial Olympics: Super-duper one-celled athletes

By Amber Dance

They race, they leap, they spin, they shoot. Meet the organisms for whom physical prowess is more than sport — it’s a matter of life and death.

Eight horses of identical appearance, lined up side by side.
Technology

Field of clones: How horse replicas came to dominate polo

In Argentina, equine cloning in polo is no longer a rarity. It’s now a mature industry — although ethical dilemmas surrounding it persist.

By Maximiliano Fernández
Photograph shows a close-up of an Aedes aegypti mosquito perched on a leaf.
Health & Disease

Beating back the Aedes aegypti mosquito

Scientists are taking a multipronged approach to tackle this dangerous carrier of dengue, yellow fever and other noxious viruses

By Katarina Zimmer
Fanciful drawing of scientific-looking apparatus, highlighting a variety of research that made the news this year.
Society

Top science stories of 2025

By Nicola Jones

In a year of funding chaos, ongoing climate change and pollution perils, we also saw the most powerful telescope yet, personalized gene therapy, and the next-best-thing to an HIV vaccine — not to mention a brand-new color

Collage of the back of a woman’s head, molecular structures, names of compounds in hair products, a flower and leaf.
Food & Environment

The science of green hair care

By Carolyn Wilke

A push to move away from petroleum products — plus the perception that natural is gentler — has scientists lathering up new ingredients, from wood and fungus extracts to engineered proteins

Photograph of several large clouds clumped together.
Physical World

When clouds flock together

By Clare Watson

Scientists are discovering that clumping clouds supercharge storms in surprising ways — driving heavy, deadly rainfall and flooding

A diagram shows a pancreas with a tumor within the larger digestive system.
Health & Disease

Progress fighting pancreatic cancer — one of the deadliest malignancies

By Amber Dance

Better outcomes may come from new drugs, strategies to rev up the immune system and learning to identify the disease sooner in its course

Illustration shows multiple sperm cells swimming into the cloud of sticky cells that surround the egg before fertilization.
Living World

Journey to the egg: How sperm navigate the path to fertilization

By Amber Dance   Illustrated by Maki Naro

COMIC: Male cells must survive twisty passages, strong currents and immune attacks; millions enter, but only one can finish

A humanoid robot stands in front of a window, folding a large T shirt.
Technology

Need laundry folded? Don’t ask a robot

For this chore, the human touch still beats machines. But maybe not for long.

By Kaia Glickman
Collage shows chemical structure of amino acids surrounding an image of various animals — including pandas, sheep, cows and an insect.
Food & Environment

How plant-eaters snag their essential amino acids

Early in evolution, we animals lost the ability to manufacture nine of the 20 building blocks needed to make proteins. Herbivores evolved an impressive array of tricks to ensure their dietary needs are met.

By Katarina Zimmer

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