All Stories
- Archaeology
Dog DNA reveals ancient trade network connecting the Arctic to the outside world
People in Siberia were exchanging canines and probably other goods as early as 7,000 years ago with cultures as far off as Europe and the Near East.
- Anthropology
How catching birds bare-handed may hint at Neandertals’ hunting tactics
By pretending to be Neandertals, researchers show that the ancient hominids likely had the skills to easily hunt crowlike birds called choughs.
- Astronomy
China’s lunar rock samples show lava flowed on the moon 2 billion years ago
The first lunar rocks returned to Earth in more than 40 years show that the moon was volcanically active later than scientists thought.
- Science & Society
How our SN 10 scientists have responded to tumultuous times
COVID-19, social justice movements and the realities of climate change have given our Scientists to Watch new perspective.
- Animals
Giant ground sloths may have been meat-eating scavengers
Contrary to previous assumptions, at least one ancient giant ground sloth was a meat eater.
- Chemistry
An easier, greener way to build molecules wins the chemistry Nobel Prize
Chemists Benjamin List and David MacMillan have sparked a whole new field that’s aided drug discovery and made chemistry more environmentally friendly.
- Astronomy
When James Webb launches, it will have a bigger to-do list than 1980s researchers suspected
The James Webb Space Telescope has been in development for so long that space science has changed in the meantime.
- Astronomy
Space rocks may have bounced off baby Earth, but slammed into Venus
New simulations suggest a way to help explain dramatic differences between the sibling worlds.
- Physics
Work on complex systems, including Earth’s climate, wins the physics Nobel Prize
Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann pioneered work on computer simulations of Earth’s climate. Giorgio Parisi found hidden patterns in disordered complex materials.
- Chemistry
Radiometric dating puts pieces of the past in context. Here’s how
Carbon dating and other techniques answer essential questions about human history, our planet and the solar system.
- Health & Medicine
A custom brain implant lifted a woman’s severe depression
An experimental device interrupts brain activity linked to a woman’s low mood. The technology, she said, has changed her lens on life.
- Quantum Physics
Scientists are one step closer to error-correcting quantum computers
In a quantum computer made with trapped ions, multiple quantum bits were combined into one to detect mistakes.
