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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Intricate silk helps net-casting spiders ensnare prey in webs
Rufous net-casting spiders can tune the stiffness and elasticity of their webs thanks to loops of silk, scanning electron microscope images reveal.
- Animals
A bonobo’s imaginary tea party suggests apes can play pretend
Apes, like humans, are capable of pretend play, challenging long-held views about how animals think, a new study suggests.
- Animals
Canadian humpback whales thrive with a little help from their friends
Humpback whales are teaching each other a feeding technique called bubble netting, and it's helping a Canadian population recover from whaling.
- Health & Medicine
Artificial lungs kept a man alive until he could get a transplant
A new artificial lung system might keep people without lungs alive for weeks. Like real lungs, tubes and pumps oxygenate blood and maintain blood flow.
- Animals
Animals experience joy. Scientists want to measure it
Scientists have long focused on quantifying fear and other negative emotions in animals. Now they’re trying to measure positive feelings — and it’s a challenge.
- Animals
How cheetah mummies could help bring the species back to Arabia
Arabian cheetah mummies' DNA reveals that the long-lost population could be closely replaced by a cheetah population in northwestern Africa.
- Physics
Queen bumblebees are poor foragers thanks to sparse tongue hair
The density of fine hairs on bumblebees’ tongues determines how much nectar they can collect — and workers put queen bees to shame.
- Physics
Here’s the science behind nuclear weapons testing
Nuclear weapons haven’t been tested in the United States since 1992. Find out why, and what could happen if the hiatus ends.
- Science & Society
These scientific discoveries brought us joy in 2025
Amidst a tough year for science, glimmers of joy burst through in revelations from the silly to the sublime.
- Earth
Some of 2025’s scientific discoveries broke records
Longest lightning, the first AI-generated genomes and biggest black hole smashup were among this year’s top science superlatives.
- Animals
Science taught us a few new tricks about our pets in 2025
Are we reading our dog’s moods right? Does TV really comfort them when we’re away? These pet stories were catnip to us this year.
- Animals
These are our favorite animal stories of 2025
From clever cockatoos to vomiting spiders, these cool critters captivated us this year.
