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How Animal Suffering Can Ruin Lab Experiments
Larry Carbone on his 3 greatest revelations while writing The Hidden Lives of Lab Animals
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The Cosmic Collision That Formed Saturn’s Rings
Computer simulations offer new insights into the oddities of the ringed planet’s moons
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How the Fastest Land Animal in North America Got Its Need for Speed
Their speediness was likely an adaptation to dashing around increasingly patchy habitats
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Is the Supervolcano in Yellowstone About to Erupt?
Weird things are happening in Yellowstone National Park
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Short sharp looks at science
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Can Morality Survive Climate Collapse?
Megha Majumdar’s acclaimed novel A Guardian and a Thief explores a near-future where scarcity forces hard choices
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Space Exploration Speaks to the Core of Who We Are
Astrobiologist Caleb Scharf’s 3 greatest revelations while writing his latest book, The Giant Leap
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Crick and Watson Did Not Steal Franklin’s Data
Matthew Cobb’s 3 greatest revelations while writing his book Crick: A Mind in Motion
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Recreating the Smells of History
Using chemistry, archival records and AI, scientists are reviving the aromas of old libraries, mummies, and battlefields
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What Would Richard Feynman Make of AI Today?
The scientific sage was always suspicious of grand promises delivered before details were understood
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Ann Druyan on How NASA’s Golden Records Got Made
A comic about humanity’s love letter to interstellar space
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We’re Evolving Beyond This Rock Right Now
Life is already busy making its transition to being interplanetary
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The Confabulations of Oliver Sacks
A neurologist reckons with recent revelations about the celebrated doctor and author
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He Erased Memory in Mice. Then Thought About Erasing His Own
Sunk in grief and alcoholism, this neuroscientist discovered the power of memory in himself
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To Be More Creative, Immigrate
Creativity flourishes when people cross borders—and when those borders blur through deep, human connection
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Naked Clams and Sunken Ships
A brazen plan to grow an animal that has been the bane of sailors for centuries—to feed the world
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The Problem with Farmed Seafood
We’re decimating the ocean to feed farmed fish. But an innovative solution has surfaced.
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Genetic Ancestry Doesn’t Tell Your Whole Story
If you’re looking for your genetic origin story, your DNA will only take you so far.
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AI’s Innate Bias Against Animals
Chatbots and robots are a setback to animal welfare—but have the potential to be a step forward
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The Psychedelic Scientist
High on ayahuasca, Bruce Damer saw how life on Earth began. He may very well be right.
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The Hidden Landscape Holding Back the Sea
The fate of our planet’s coasts rests on Antarctic bedrock
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Gaia’s Got a Fever
An aging Earth, like an aging body, is increasingly vulnerable to heat’s fatal strikes
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In the Land of the Eyeless Dragons
The cave-dwelling olm is a canary in the coal mine for environmental change
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Visit the 7 Most Extreme Planets in the Universe
From molten glass rain to oceans of lava, an intergalactic tour of the most terrifying and beautiful climates out there
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The Sean Carrolls Explain the Universe
Why are we here? Is there life on other planets? The renowned scientists who share a name share their answers to life’s big questions.
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The Soviet Rebel of Music
He composed on a computer in a dangerous time. His echo is still heard today.
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How Whales Could Help Us Speak to Aliens
Learning to decode complex communication on Earth may give us a leg up if intelligent life from space makes contact.
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When Galileo’s Cosmic Convictions Landed Him in Court
More than 300 years later, the astronomer was finally vindicated -
This Is What an Egyptian Mummy Smells Like
Every smell tells a unique story -
The Tourist Draw of Melting Glaciers
Glacier tourism tends to do more harm than good, and when the glaciers are gone, local economies will have to adapt -
Hubble Captures the Egg Nebula in Stunning Detail
New images from the Hubble Space Telescope show a nebula in transition -
How Charles Darwin Inherited His World-shifting Ideas on Evolution
His grandfather’s influence on his revolutionary thinking has finally come to light -
A Peek Inside the Minds of Honeybees
New research reveals the neurochemical cocktail brewing in bee brains when they learn -
The Spy Who Found T. Rex
Pioneering paleontologist Barnum Brown took on some curious gigs outside of his digs -
Bird Poop Powered the Success of This Ancient Kingdom
“In ancient Andean cultures, fertilizer was power” -
How This Delicious Fruit Hampers Reforestation in Madagascar
It nourishes endangered lemurs while destroying their habitats -
The Pressure Moms Feel to Solve the World’s Problems
In a time of perpetual crisis, more and more mothers are trying to find the solutions that their governments seem unwilling to provide -
The Major Milk Controversy That Quickly Dried Up
A synthetic hormone once sparked a supermarket showdown, but today it has all but disappeared from dairy farms -
New Smart Underwear Unlocks the Serious Science of Human Flatulence
It’s giving researchers insights into the microbiome—and you can help -
Edward Teller Tried to Move Mountains With Nuclear Bombs
The father of the H-bomb hoped to put these blasts toward civilian infrastructure -
Your Boss Could Monitor Your Heart Rate With Spy Tech
The surveillance arms race between employers and employees is heating up -
Why Exercising May Not Help You Lose Weight
New research shows our bodies might compensate for all that hard work -
How a Worried Mom Created One of the Most Versatile Inventions
Duct tape wouldn’t exist without Vesta Stoudt, whose bright idea quickly stuck -
Why Termite Kings Have Sluggish Sperm
New research reveals the evolutionary history of termites -
The Dark History of Space Medicine
How Nazi Germany influenced early research into spaceflight’s health impacts -
This Football-Shaped Creature Was an Early Terrestrial Plant-Eater
The newly discovered specimen shows how early herbivory evolved -
How Boats Are a Buzzkill for Porpoises
Without their echolocation clicks, there’s no dinner
