All Stories
- Health & Medicine
How relocating musicians can reduce COVID-19 risk at concerts
Based on simulations of how air flows across a stage, the Utah Symphony rearranged where its musicians sit and boosted ventilation.
- Animals
Chinese mountain cats swap DNA with domestic cats, but aren’t their ancestors
DNA suggests little-studied Chinese mountain cats have been rendezvousing with pet cats on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau since the 1950s.
- Astronomy
Any aliens orbiting these 2,000 stars could spot Earth crossing the sun
Alien astronomers in those star systems could discover Earth the way we find exoplanets: by watching for a dip in starlight.
- Health & Medicine
How COVID-19 created a perfect storm for a deadly fungal infection in India
Amid the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, numbers of rare but dangerous “black fungus” infections have skyrocketed in the country.
- Space
Cosmic filaments may be the biggest spinning objects in space
Filaments of dark matter and galaxies, which can stretch millions of light-years, might help astronomers figure out the origins of cosmic spin.
- Animals
‘Fathom’ seeks to unravel humpback whales’ soulful songs
The film ‘Fathom’ on Apple TV+ follows the quest of researchers on the ocean’s surface to decipher the eerie symphony of humpback whale calls below.
- Physics
Mathematician J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. was a Manhattan Project standout despite racism
Black scientist J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. made nuclear physics calculations that helped build an atomic bomb.
- Science & Society
50 years ago, UFO sightings in the United States went bust
In 1971, reports of unidentified flying objects were on the decline. Fifty years later, sightings have spiked thanks in part to pandemic lockdowns.
- Animals
New images clarify how glasswing butterflies make their wings transparent
Close-up views of glasswing butterflies reveal the secrets behind the insect’s see-through wings: sparse, spindly scales and a waxy coating.
- Earth
A satellite’s view of a deadly 2019 eruption could improve volcano monitoring
Monitoring volcanoes from space could enhance scientists’ understanding of, and ability to predict, even small eruptions.
- Health & Medicine
Controlling nerve cells with light opened new ways to study the brain
A method called optogenetics offers insights into memory, perception and addiction.
- Health & Medicine
How one medical team is bringing COVID-19 vaccines to hard-to-reach Hispanic communities
Unidos Contra COVID’s Spanish-speaking volunteers go to where Philadelphia’s Hispanic people gather, giving shots and addressing concerns one-on-one.
