All Stories
-
AstronomyThe biggest planet orbiting TRAPPIST-1 doesn’t appear to have an atmosphere
TRAPPIST-1b is hotter than astronomers expected, suggesting there’s no atmosphere to transport heat around the planet.
-
AstronomyA neutron star collision may have emitted a fast radio burst
Astronomers spotted both a fast radio burst and gravitational waves from a cosmic smashup in the same part of the sky and at about the same time.
-
AnimalsVolcanic sulfur may make barn owls grow redder feathers
Barn owls on volcanic islands tend to have redder plumage than those on nonvolcanic islands, possibly due to an influx of sulfur in the environment.
-
MathChia seedlings verify Alan Turing’s ideas about patterns in nature
New experiments confirm that complex patterns in plants emerge from a model proposed by mathematician Alan Turing.
-
Health & MedicineMicroplastics are in our bodies. Here’s why we don’t know the health risks
Researchers are racing to try to understand how much humans are exposed and what levels are toxic.
-
AnimalsThese transparent fish turn rainbow with white light. Now, we know why
Repeated structures in the ghost catfish’s muscles separate white light that passes through their bodies into different wavelengths.
-
MathMathematicians have finally discovered an elusive ‘einstein’ tile
After half a century, mathematicians succeed in finding an ‘einstein,’ a shape that forms a tiled pattern that never repeats.
-
Health & MedicineHow raccoon dog DNA fits into the COVID-19 origins debate
Did the virus that causes COVID-19 come from animals or a lab? Evidence hints at animals. Either way, we should be prepping for the next pandemic.
-
AnimalsScientists have now recorded brain waves from freely moving octopuses
The data reveal some unexpected patterns, though it’s too early to know how octopus brains control the animals’ behavior, a new study finds.
-
MathHere’s a peek into the mathematics of black holes
The universe tells us slowly rotating black holes are stable. A nearly 1,000-page proof confirms it.
-
GeneticsDNA from Beethoven’s hair hints at what killed the composer
Many historians suspect Beethoven died from liver failure. A new analysis shows he had a heightened genetic risk for liver disease, researchers say.
-
Space‘Off-Earth’ asks how to build a better future in space
As humans prepare to live in space someday, ethics should be as much of guide as science and technology, an astrophysicist argues in a new book.