All Stories
- Materials Science
A materials scientist seeks to extract lithium from untapped sources
Lithium is an essential ingredient for batteries in electric vehicles but getting enough will become a problem.
- Neuroscience
By studying the eyes, a researcher explores how the brain sorts information
Freek van Ede seeks to understand how the brain selects information to plan for the future. He’s finding clues in the tiny movements people make with their eyes.
- Cosmology
How did dark matter shape the universe? This physicist has ideas
Theoretical physicist Tracy Slatyer proposes new scenarios for dark matter and helped discover the Fermi bubbles.
- Quantum Physics
Why this physicist is bringing thermodynamics to the quantum age
Like a steampunk fantasy-world, which pairs high-tech with an old-timey setting, Nicole Yunger Halpern melds old and new science.
- Health & Medicine
HIV and illicit drugs are a bad mix. This scientist found an unexpected reason why
The neuroscientist considers themself an outsider, which allows them to embrace people who have been marginalized, including people who have HIV.
- Computing
This engineer’s light-based computers take inspiration from the brain
Physicist and engineer Bhavin Shastri is working to create the first photonic computer modeled after the human brain.
- Climate
Climate change could double U.S. temperature-linked deaths by mid-century
Each year, roughly 8,000 deaths in the United States are associated with extreme temperatures. And as temperatures rise, this number could swell.
- Animals
Scientists have just turned giant panda skin cells into stem cells
If the pluripotent stem cells can be turned into precursors to egg and sperm cells, the feat could potentially be a big deal for giant panda conservation.
- Microbes
Some bacteria in your mouth can divide into as many as 14 cells at once
The filamentous bacterium Corynebacterium matruchotii has a unique reproductive strategy that might allow it to claim territory quickly.
- Particle Physics
A neutrino mass mismatch could shake cosmology’s foundations
Cosmological data suggest unexpected masses for neutrinos, including the possibility of zero or negative mass.
- Climate
Earth’s ancient ‘greenhouse’ conditions were hotter than thought
A timeline of 485 million years of Earth’s surface temperatures shows ancient greenhouse conditions were hotter than scientists thought.
- Health & Medicine
Vaccines for mpox are finally reaching Africa. But questions about the virus remain
With concerns that mpox may now spread more easily and be more severe, researchers warn that failing to curb the outbreak means “nobody is safe.”
