All Stories

Science & Society

Would you opt to see the future or decipher the past?

Acting Editor in Chief Elizabeth Quill wonders what it would be like if scientists could see into the past and the future.

Life

Readers debate ethics of resurrecting extinct species

Readers raised questions about using gene editing tools to bring species back from the dead.

Neuroscience

Scientists are seeking new strategies to fight multiple sclerosis

Facing so many unknowns about multiple sclerosis, researchers explore the immune system, the neurons and the gut to fight the disease.

Anthropology

Strong-armed women helped power Europe’s ancient farming revolution

Intensive manual labor gave ancient farm women arms that female rowers today would envy.

Science & Society

First controlled nuclear chain reaction achieved 75 years ago

The anniversary of the first controlled nuclear chain reaction marks an achievement of immigrants who served America in World War II.

Animals

Here’s yet more evidence that the mythical yeti was probably a bear

A more complete genetic analysis amps up the evidence that the legendary creatures known as yetis are actually bears.

Health & Medicine

Testosterone may be one reason why men don’t get asthma as much as women

Adult women have higher rates of asthma than men, and testosterone’s effect on the immune system may partly explain that difference.

Animals

Most blue whales are ‘righties,’ except for this one move

Though many blue whales tend to be “right-handed” when hunting for krill, one specific barrel roll move requires a lefty twist.

Oceans

In the deep ocean, these bacteria play a key role in trapping carbon

Mysterious nitrite-oxidizing bacteria capture more carbon than previously thought and may be the primary engine at the base of the deep ocean’s food web.

Earth

What the Pliocene epoch can teach us about future warming on Earth

By simulating the changes that occurred during the warm Pliocene epoch, researchers are trying to predict Earth’s future hundreds of years from now.

Science & Society

Parents may one day be morally obligated to edit their baby’s genes

The CRISPR debate is moving from “should we or shouldn’t we?” to “do we have to?”

Astronomy

Here’s what really happened to Hanny’s Voorwerp

Glowing clouds of gas known as Hanny’s Voorwerp offer a way to study galaxies and black holes in the distant past.