Two new books show how sexism still pervades astronomy
In A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman and The Sky Is for Everyone, female astronomers recount how sexism has affected their careers.
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Cover Story
How Mars rovers have evolved in 25 years of exploring the Red Planet
Over 25 years, remotely controlled rovers have uncovered Mars’ watery history and continue to search for evidence that life once existed there.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Astronomy
Here are the James Webb Space Telescope’s stunning first pictures
President Biden revealed the NASA telescope's image of ancient galaxies whose light has been traveling 13 billion years to reach us.
Notebook
Paleontology
A newfound dinosaur had tiny arms before T. rex made them cool
A predecessor to Tyrannosaurus rex, Meraxes gigas had a giant head and puny but muscular arms, suggesting the limbs served some purpose.
Features
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Multiple sclerosis has a common viral culprit, opening doors to new approaches
Learning how the common Epstein-Barr virus may trigger multiple sclerosis could help experts design better treatments — or perhaps end the disease.
More Stories from the August 13, 2022 issue
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, scientists hoped freezing donor organs would boost transplants
In the 1970s, biologists hoped to freeze organs so more could last long enough to be transplanted. Scientists are now starting to manage this feat.
- Space
Six months in space leads to a decade’s worth of long-term bone loss
Even after a year of recovery in Earth’s gravity, astronauts who’d been in space six months or more still had bone loss equal to a decade of aging.
- Tech
A neck patch for athletes could help detect concussions early
The small sensor is sleeker and cheaper than other devices used to monitor neck strain in athletes.
- Quantum Physics
Aliens could send quantum messages to Earth, calculations suggest
Scientists are developing quantum communications networks on Earth. Aliens, if they exist, could be going further.
- Environment
Flower shape and size impact bees’ chances of catching gut parasites
Bumblebees have higher chances of contracting a gut parasite from short, wide flowers than from blooms with other shapes, experiments show.
- Astronomy
Clouds in the Milky Way’s plasma bubbles came from the starry disk — and far beyond
Gas clouds in the Fermi bubbles have a wide range of chemical compositions, suggesting some may have been ripped from other galaxies.
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Dogs are great sniffers. A newfound nose-to-brain connection helps explain why
A new anatomical description of how smell works in a dog brain shows why they’re such good sniffers.
- Planetary Science
A new look at the ‘mineral kingdom’ may transform how we search for life
A new census of Earth’s crystal past hints that life may have begun earlier than expected, and could be a tool to look for water and life elsewhere.
- Particle Physics
A supersensitive dark matter search found no signs of the substance — yet
The LZ experiment’s first measurement raises hopes that scientists are closer than ever to finding the source of much of the universe’s mass.
- Environment
How to build better ice towers for drinking water and irrigation
“Ice stupas” emerged in 2014 as a way to cope with climate change shrinking glaciers. Automation could help improve the cones’ construction.
- Paleontology
Feathers may have helped dinosaurs survive the Triassic mass extinction
New data show that dinosaurs were able to weather freezing conditions about 202 million years ago, probably thanks to warm feathery coats.
