Feature
- Archaeology
Clovis hunters’ reputation as mammoth killers takes a hit
Early Americans’ stone points were best suited to butchering the huge beasts’ carcasses, scientists contend.
- Microbes
A sailor’s story captures the impact of rising serious fungal infections
Fungal infections are hard to diagnose, hard to treat and are on the rise. A young sailor is staying positive to navigate the challenges.
- Particle Physics
A new particle accelerator aims to unlock secrets of bizarre atomic nuclei
The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams will help scientists unlock the inner workings of atomic nuclei and explore how elements formed in the cosmos.
- Microbes
Are viruses alive, not alive or something in between? And why does it matter?
The way we talk about viruses can shift scientific research and our understanding of evolution.
- Psychology
Scientists should report results with intellectual humility. Here’s how
Foregrounding a study’s uncertainties and limitations could help restore faith in the social sciences.
- Health & Medicine
Epidemics have happened before and they’ll happen again. What will we remember?
A century’s worth of science has helped us fend off infectious pathogens. But we have a lot to learn from the people who lived and died during epidemics.
- Animals
Jumping spiders’ remarkable senses capture a world beyond our perception
Clever experiments and new technology are taking scientists deep into the lives of jumping spiders, and opening a portal to their experience of the world.
- Science & Society
How our SN 10 scientists have responded to tumultuous times
COVID-19, social justice movements and the realities of climate change have given our Scientists to Watch new perspective.
- Astronomy
When James Webb launches, it will have a bigger to-do list than 1980s researchers suspected
The James Webb Space Telescope has been in development for so long that space science has changed in the meantime.
- Chemistry
Radiometric dating puts pieces of the past in context. Here’s how
Carbon dating and other techniques answer essential questions about human history, our planet and the solar system.
- Climate
Rice feeds half the world. Climate change’s droughts and floods put it at risk
Rice provides sustenance for billions who have no alternative, and climate change threatens to slash production. Growers will need to innovate to provide an important crop as climate whiplash brings drought and floods to fields worldwide.
- Chemistry
Luis Miramontes helped enable the sexual revolution. Why isn’t he better known?
By synthesizing norethindrone, one of the first active ingredients in birth control pills, Luis Miramontes helped usher in the sexual revolution.
