News

  1. Science & Society

    Students’ mental health imperiled by $1 billion cuts to school funding

    The Trump administration is cutting $1 billion in grants that support student mental health. That has educators worried.

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  2. Animals

    Genetics might save the rare, elusive saola — if it’s not already extinct

    A new genetic study could help saolas survive by enabling better searches through environmental DNA. But some experts fear they may be extinct already.

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  3. Space

    A passing star could fling Earth out of orbit

    Simulations show that the star's tug could send Mercury, Venus or Mars crashing into Earth — or let Jupiter eject our world from the solar system.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Personalized gene editing saved a baby, but the tech’s future is uncertain

    The personalized CRISPR treatment could be the future of gene therapy, but hurdles remain before everyone has access.

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  5. Neuroscience

    ‘Silent’ cells play a surprising role in how brains work

    New studies show that astrocytes, long thought to be support cells in the brain, are crucial intermediaries for relaying messages to neurons.

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  6. Animals

    Bedbugs may have been one of the first urban pests

    Common bedbugs experienced a dramatic jump in population size about 13,000 years ago, around the time humans congregated in the first cities.

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  7. Anthropology

    Humans used whale bones to make tools 20,000 years ago

    Ancient scavengers of the beached beasts turned their bones into implements that spread across a large area, researchers say.

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  8. Life

    The first cicada concert was 47 million years ago

    A 47-million-year-old cicada fossil from Germany’s Messel Pit could teach us about the evolution of insect communication.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Wet fingers always wrinkle in the same way

    Pruney fingertips aren't swollen sponges — the wrinkles actually come from blood vessels constricting and pulling skin inward.

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  10. Paleontology

    Sloths once came in a dizzying array of sizes. Here’s why

    A new fossil and DNA analysis traces how dozens of sloth species responded to climate shifts and humans. Just two small tree-dwelling sloths remain today.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    It’s tricky to transplant a bladder. How surgeons finally did it

    The person who received the bladder is doing well, and the successful transplant could offer hope to thousands of people with bladder dysfunction.

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  12. Climate

    Penguin poop gives Antarctic cloud formation a boost

    Penguin poop provides ammonia for cloud formation in coastal Antarctica, potentially helping to mitigate the impacts of climate change in the region.

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