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  1. An illustration of an orange planet with dark orange and red spots scattered across its surface.
    Astronomy

    The 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.

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  2. illustration of two merging neutron stars in blue
    Astronomy

    A 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.

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  3. A photo of a Tyto alba barn owl standing on a log on the ground. The owl is looking at the camera with its body turned away.
    Animals

    Volcanic 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.

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  4. An overhead photo of blotchy vegetation taking up the entire frame.
    Math

    Chia 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.

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  5. A photo of a city street with over large bits of microplastics overlaying the image.
    Health & Medicine

    Microplastics 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.

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  6. A close up photo of several ghost catfish swimming on a black background while a light is shining on some of their scales which appear iridescent.
    Animals

    These 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.

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  7. An image of several dark blue, gray, white, and light blue, 13-sided tiles interconnected.
    Math

    Mathematicians 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.

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  8. A photo of a raccoon dog looking over its should at the camera while it stands in a field of tall grass.
    Health & Medicine

    How 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.

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  9. A photo of a big blue octopus hovering in the water with several of its tentacles curled up around its body.
    Animals

    Scientists 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.

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  10. An image of a black hole
    Math

    Here’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.

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  11. image of a circular lock of Beethoven's hair attached to an old piece of paper with something written in cursive script
    Genetics

    DNA 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.

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  12. An astronaut in a space suit stands with their back to the camera and looks out at inflatable domes as part of a habitat on Mars.
    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.

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