All Stories

  1. Climate

    Harmful heat doesn’t always come in waves

    Even without reaching heat wave levels, sustained high temperatures may contribute to a litany of health issues.

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  2. Life

    A barrage of radiation couldn’t kill this hardy life-form

    A type of lichen was able to survive extreme UV radiation in the lab, suggesting that ozone protection might not be required for life on exoplanets.

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  3. Astronomy

    Mysterious ‘little red dot’ galaxies have a possible origin story

    Compact ruddy galaxies seen by the James Webb telescope confound astronomers. Having very little spin at birth may explain the galaxies’ small sizes.

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  4. Genetics

    Genetics reveal the origin story of East Asia’s favorite sweet bean

    The origin of red beans — also called adzuki — has been murky. A new study says Japan is where it all started.

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  5. Earth

    Earth’s oldest rocks may be at least 4.16 billion years old

    If the new age of these Canadian rocks is solid, they would be the first and only ones known to have survived Earth’s earliest, tumultuous time.

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  6. Animals

    This bug’s all-in helicopter parenting reshaped its eggs

    An egg-shape trend found among birds shows up in miniature with very protective bug parents. Elongated eggs fit more compactly under mom.

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  7. Psychology

    AI can measure our cultural history. But is it accurate?

    Art and literature hint at past people’s psyches. Now computers can identify patterns in those cognitive fossils, but human expertise remains crucial.

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  8. Quantum Physics

    ‘Magic’ states empower error-resistant quantum computing

    Special quantum states allow computers to perform the most difficult class of quantum computing operations.

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  9. Planetary Science

    In a first, the Webb telescope found a planet by actually ‘seeing’ it

    Finding a Saturn-sized world around the young star TWA 7 could pave the way for the Webb space telescope’s direct observation of other exoplanets.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Many U.S. babies may lack gut bacteria that train their immune systems

    Too little Bifidobacterium, used to digest breast milk, in babies' gut microbiomes can increase their risk of developing allergies and asthma.

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  11. Physics

    No player can return this killer shot. Physics explains how it works

    Squash’s killer “nick shot” has a formula. It’s all about height and timing, a new study shows.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Mailed self-sample kits boosted cervical cancer screening

    People who are uninsured or part of a minority racial or ethnic group are underscreened for cervical cancer. Mailing them a self-sample kit may help.

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