All Stories
- Physics
Maxwell’s demon faces the heat
A device inspired by an 1867 thought experiment fails to break the second law of thermodynamics, which governs the flow of heat and the drive toward maximum disorder.
- Animals
Inside the roaring sex lives of howler monkeys
Listening to the intense roars of howler monkeys in Mexico inspired scientists to decipher how and why calls differ among species.
- Astronomy
Super-Earths, meet superpuffs, a lighter weight class of planet
Superpuffs are underweight, oversized planets that formed in outskirts of star systems before cuddling up close to their sun.
- Anthropology
People roamed tip of South America 18,500 years ago
Stone tools, charred animal bones and fire ash found at the Monte Verde site in Chile indicate people reached South America’s southernmost territory at least 18,500 years ago.
- Archaeology
Search for fossils from the comfort of home
The citizen science website FossilFinder.org lets anyone with an Internet connection look for fossils and characterize rocks at Kenya’s Lake Turkana Basin
- Earth
Pioneering geologist sought to demystify volcanic eruptions
In The Last Volcano, a geologist profiles Thomas Jaggar, one of the 20th century’s most influential volcanologists.
- Animals
Snakes evolved from burrowing ancestor, new data suggest
A new X-ray analysis of inner ears is the latest to weigh in on whether modern snakes descended from a burrowing or a swimming reptile.
- Animals
Mystery deepens for what made tarantulas blue
Blue hair on tarantulas shows what evolution does with iridescence that females probably don’t care about.
- Planetary Science
A defenseless Mars is losing its atmosphere
Measurements of Mars’ atmosphere leaking into space could help scientists explain how the Red Planet lost its once life-friendly climate.
- Archaeology
Mystery still surrounds Neandertals
Neandertals’ relationship to modern humans is still a matter of debate.
- Astronomy
More mysterious extragalactic signals detected
Five more fast radio bursts from other galaxies have shown up and one of them is a double.
- Animals
For a python, every meal is like Thanksgiving
Burmese pythons rarely eat, but when they do, they gorge. Unlike humans, pythons have adaptations that allow them to survive on huge meals.
