Earth
A new book uses stories from tsunami survivors to decode deadly waves
In ‘Tsunami: The World’s Greatest Waves,’ two scientists chronical hundreds of eyewitness accounts to show the human cost of life at the water’s edge.
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
Solving mysteries of reproduction helped make parenthood possible for millions
Over the last 100 years, research has shed light on where we come from — how a single fertilized egg manages to develop into an organism that is unique, complex and most decidedly human — and technology has helped spur the process.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Climate
The last 30 years were the hottest on record for the United States
Typical temps across large swaths of the country are now 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit higher than their 20th-century averages.
Notebook
Climate
‘Tree farts’ contribute about a fifth of greenhouse gases from ghost forests
Greenhouse gases from dead trees play an important role in the overall environmental impact of ghost forests, a new study suggests.
Features
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To find answers about the 1921 race massacre, Tulsa digs up its painful past
A century ago, hundreds of people died in a horrific eruption of racial violence in Tulsa. A team of researchers may have found a mass grave from the event.
More Stories from the June 19, 2021 issue
- Life
European fire ant chemicals may send spiders scurrying away
Black widows and some other common spider species avoid spaces where fire ants once roamed, suggesting the insects could inspire a spider repellent.
- Archaeology
The oldest known tattoo tools were found at an ancient Tennessee site
Sharpened turkey leg bones may have served as tattoo needles between 5,520 and 3,620 years ago, at least a millennium earlier than previously thought.
- Astronomy
Record-breaking light has more than a quadrillion electron volts of energy
Hundreds of newly detected gamma rays hint at cosmic environments that accelerate particles to extremes.
- Climate
‘Zombie’ forest fires may become more common with climate change
Wildfires that survive winter underground can flare up after warm summers and account for more than one-third of the scorched ground in some regions.
- Health & Medicine
MDMA, the key ingredient in Ecstasy, eases symptoms of severe PTSD
By the end of the trial, 67 percent of the participants who took MDMA had improved so much that they no longer qualified as having a PTSD diagnosis.
- Neuroscience
Playing brain training games regularly doesn’t boost brainpower
Comparing brain training program users with those who don’t do the mini brain workouts, scientists found no proof that the regimens boosted brainpower.
- Neuroscience
Brain implants turn imagined handwriting into text on a screen
A person who was paralyzed from the neck down was able to communicate, thanks to brain-to-text technology.
- Astronomy
Some fast radio bursts come from the spiral arms of other galaxies
Tracking five brief, bright blasts of cosmic radio waves to their origins suggests their sources form quickly in regions with lots of star formation.
- Physics
A newfound quasicrystal formed in the first atomic bomb test
Material formed in the wake of the first atomic bomb test contains a strange material that is ordered but that is not a standard crystal.
- Astronomy
The Milky Way may have grown up faster than astronomers suspected
Most of the galaxy’s disk was in place before a merger 10 billion years ago with a dwarf galaxy called Gaia-Enceladus/Sausage, a new study suggests.
- Astronomy
A study of Earth’s crust hints that supernovas aren’t gold mines
Supernovas aren’t the main source of gold, silver and other heavy elements, a study of deep-sea crust suggests.
- Animals
Urchin mobs team up to butcher sea stars that prey on them
Urchins are important herbivores in nearshore ecosystems, but are not strict vegetarians, with hunger that extends even to munching predatory nemeses.
- Animals
‘Fathom’ seeks to unravel humpback whales’ soulful songs
The film ‘Fathom’ on Apple TV+ follows the quest of researchers on the ocean’s surface to decipher the eerie symphony of humpback whale calls below.
- Science & Society
50 years ago, UFO sightings in the United States went bust
In 1971, reports of unidentified flying objects were on the decline. Fifty years later, sightings have spiked thanks in part to pandemic lockdowns.
