Tech
The Story of Stories traces the arc of storytelling across human history
In The Story of Stories, technologist Kevin Ashton explores how storytelling has evolved and why stories matter.
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
Have we entered a new age of AI-enabled scientific discovery?
Some say we’ve entered a new age of AI-enabled scientific discovery. But human insight and creativity still can’t be automated.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Animals
This fish may play a hole in its head like a drum
The rockhead poacher is a little fish with a big pit in its head. The divot may be like a drum, making sound that rises above a chaotic, nearshore din.
Technically Fiction
Science & Society
Project Hail Mary made us wonder how to survive a trip to interstellar space
We can take some clues from hibernation and cryogenics, but humans aren't yet built for that kind of deep sleep.
More Stories from the March 1, 2026 issue
- Health & Medicine
Home HPV tests won’t replace the ob-gyn
Breast exams, birth control and family planning are just some of the reasons not to skip your annual ob-gyn appointment.
- 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.
- Climate
Earth’s last 3 years were its hottest on record
An analysis of global climate data shows sustained warming even as El Niño faded.
- Animals
In a Quebec park, a science game brings predator-prey dynamics to life
Results show that players’ choices echo predator-prey patterns seen in wildlife, though scientists stress the limits of the analogy.
- Plants
In a new kind of plant trickery, this yam fools birds with fake berries
Black-bulb yam’s mimicry tricks birds into spreading its berrylike clones. The plant's novel strategy helps it spread without seeds or sexual reproduction.
- Animals
An all-female wasp is rapidly spreading across North America’s elms
The elm zigzag sawfly has spread to 15 states in five years. Now it's attacking the tree that cities planted to replace Dutch elm disease victims.
- 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.
- Astronomy
A double cosmic explosion could be the first known ‘superkilonova’
The blast may have been a kilonova — a type of neutron star merger — in the wake of a more traditional supernova.
- Climate
Hidden tree bark microbes munch on important climate gases
Trees are known for absorbing CO2. But microbes in their bark also absorb other climate-active gases, methane, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide.
- Particle Physics
Earth is bathed in droves of neutrinos spewed by the Milky Way’s stars
The subatomic particles are incredibly numerous. About 1,000 neutrinos from stars other than the sun pass through a thumbnail every second.
- Planetary Science
A newly spotted asteroid spins faster than any of its size ever seen
Among the first finds from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the discovery hints at a population of exceptionally strong asteroids.
- Earth
An underwater volcano off Oregon didn’t erupt in 2025 after all. Why not?
Data from Axial, the most-monitored underwater volcano, are helping geophysicists hone eruption predictions. For Axial, 2026 is their next bet.
- Health & Medicine
Botox could be used to fight snakebite
A study on rabbits dosed with viper venom suggests that botulinum toxin may alleviate some effects of snakebite, possibly by dampening inflammation.
- Space
Betelgeuse’s buddy leaves a wake in the giant star’s atmosphere
The wake left by Betelgeuse’s companion could solve a decades-old mystery of its strange brightness cycles.
- Health & Medicine
Tell Me Where It Hurts sets the record straight on pain — and how to treat it
A new book by pain researcher Rachel Zoffness demystifies how pain is made and how it can be treated.
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Crossword: Copy That!
Solve the crossword from our March 2026 issue, in which we work on our code-switching.
