All Stories
- Genetics
A genetic analysis hints at why COVID-19 can mess with smell
People with some genetic variants close to smell-related genes had an 11 percent higher risk of losing their sense of taste or smell.
- Animals
Part donkey, part wild ass, the kunga is the oldest known hybrid bred by humans
Syria’s 4,500-year-old kungas were donkey-wild ass hybrids, genetic analysis reveals, so the earliest known example of humans crossing animal species.
- Space
50 years ago, NASA’s space shuttle program got the green light
For over 30 years, space shuttles helped revolutionize science. Now, NASA is tackling new frontiers with help from commercial spaceflight companies.
- Astronomy
An early outburst portends a star’s imminent death
An eruption before a stellar explosion was the first early warning sign for a standard type of supernova.
- Quantum Physics
Quantum particles can feel the influence of gravitational fields they never touch
A quantum phenomenon predicted in 1959, the Aharonov-Bohm effect, also applies to gravity.
- Planetary Science
Organic molecules in an ancient Mars meteorite formed via geology, not alien life
Analysis of an ancient Martian meteorite reveals that organic molecules within it were formed by geologic processes rather than alien life.
- Animals
The largest group of nesting fish ever found lives beneath Antarctic ice
Researchers stumbled upon a fish breeding colony of unprecedented size, spanning a territory slightly larger than Baltimore.
- Astronomy
Astronomers identified a second possible exomoon
Kepler 1708 b i, a newly discovered candidate for an exoplanet moon, has a radius about 2.6 times that of Earth, a new study suggests.
- Anthropology
Homo sapiens bones in East Africa are at least 36,000 years older than once thought
Analyses of remnants of a volcanic blast push the age of East Africa’s oldest known H. sapiens fossils at Ethiopia’s Omo site to 233,000 years or more.
- Quantum Physics
A century of quantum mechanics questions the fundamental nature of reality
A century after the quantum revolution, a lot of uncertainty remains.
- Health & Medicine
Omicron forces us to rethink COVID-19 testing and treatments
At-home rapid tests may miss the speedy variant early on, and some treatments, such as some monoclonal antibodies, no longer work.
- Climate
Climate change communication should focus less on specific numbers
Even if nations don’t meet goals to curb global climate change, any progress is better than none.
