All Stories
- Space
NASA’s first look at a sample from asteroid Bennu reveals life’s building blocks
Scientists have begun to analyze roughly 250 grams of Bennu, which could offer insight into solar system formation and life’s origins on Earth.
- Health & Medicine
A monkey survived two years with a miniature pig’s kidney
A new study is the latest in a string of efforts seeking to use other animal species to solve the global organ shortage in people.
- Planetary Science
In a first, astronomers spot the afterglow of an exoplanet collision
A surge of infrared light from a remote star might have been a glow cast by the vaporized leftovers of an impact between Neptune-sized worlds.
- Animals
Gene editing can make chickens resistant to bird flu
Chickens genetically modified to be impervious to avian influenza may one day prevent the spread of the disease on farms, a study suggests.
- Math
An enduring Möbius strip mystery has finally been solved
Playing with paper and scissors helped one mathematician figure out just how short the twisted loops can be.
- Microbes
Watch: Recent microbial discoveries are changing our view of life on Earth
Videos capture the strange movements and predatory styles of protists — among the closest microbial cousins to multicellular life.
- Math
Non-Western art and design can reveal alternate ways of thinking about math
Focusing on the relationship between math and culture can boost student learning and expand mathematical knowledge, researchers say.
- Physics
Vela’s exploded star is the highest-energy pulsar ever seen
A spinning dead star about 1,000 light-years away, in the constellation Vela, raises questions about how pulsars can emit such extreme radiation.
- Archaeology
Human footprints in New Mexico really may be surprisingly ancient, new dating shows
Two dating methods find that human tracks in White Sands National Park in New Mexico are roughly 22,000 years old, aligning with a previous estimate.
- Health & Medicine
‘Dormant’ HIV has ongoing skirmishes with the body’s immune system
In people on HIV drugs, defective viral bits may still exhaust T cells, possibly making it harder to fight back if people go off the drugs.
- Life
Hippos might be ferocious fighters, but their big teeth make them terrible chewers
Among plant eaters, hippos are the worst chewers. Their huge tusks and front teeth keep the jaw from moving side to side to grind food, a study finds.
- Chemistry
The development of quantum dots wins the 2023 Nobel prize in chemistry
Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov split the prize for their work in creating nanoparticles whose properties depend on their size.
