All Stories
- Animals
Australian fires have imperiled up to 100 species
As massive wildfires consume huge swaths of Australia’s bush, untold species — many of them found nowhere else — are now threatened with extinction.
- Materials Science
Self-powered surface may evaluate table-tennis play
Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology built a 'smart' surface on which to play table tennis. It can track the location, speed and direction of the ball.
- Animals
Why some whales become giants and others are only big
Being big helps whales access more food. But just how big a whale can get is influenced by whether it hunts or filter-feeds.
- Brain
Scientists’ brains shrank after a long stay in Antarctica
The isolation of a long-term mission at an Antarctic research station shrunk part of crew members’ brains, a small study suggests.
- Physics
Scientists Say: Quark
These subatomic particles are the building blocks of bigger particles, including the protons and neutrons found in an atom’s nucleus.
- Health & Medicine
Globetrotting microbes in airplane sewage may spread antibiotic resistance
Along with harder-to-kill microbes, airplane sewage contains a diverse set of the genes that let bacteria evade antibiotics.
- Physics
Giving Notre Dame back her unique voice
A 2019 fire robbed Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral of more than her roof. She also lost her voice. Now scientists are using acoustics to return her unique soundscape.
- Physics
Here’s how quantum mechanics lets heat cross a vacuum
Heat can move across a vacuum if the span is small enough. As in really, really small. In a new experiment, the gap was only a few hundred nanometers.
- Archaeology
Ancient Egyptian mummy tattoos come to light
A range of markings discovered on female mummies are challenging ideas about tattoo traditions in ancient Egypt.
- Physics
Glass beads help scientists puzzle out how baby planets grow
Researchers have mimicked the first stages of planet formation in the lab. All they needed were glass beads and a catapult.
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- Health & Medicine
Viewing virtual reality of icy landscapes may relieve pain
Traveling to polar vistas via virtual reality eased a temporary burning in the viewers’ skin. The same VR also lessened simulated chronic pain.
