Science & Society
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Cosmology
Remembering Joe Polchinski, the modest physicist who conceived a multiverse
String theorists lament the death of Joe Polchinski, one of their field’s most esteemed and respected thinkers.
- Earth
New mapping shows just how much fishing impacts the world’s seas
Industrial fishing now occurs across 55 percent of the world’s ocean area while only 34 percent of Earth’s land area is used for agriculture or grazing.
- Science & Society
Building a bright future for science journalism
Editor in Chief Nancy Shute is ready to produce top-quality science journalism and investigate digital innovations.
- Planetary Science
Readers weigh in on human gene editing and more
Readers debated feeling morally obligated to edit their kid's genes and had questions about exoplanets.
- Computing
Are computers better than people at predicting who will commit another crime?
If crime-predicting computer programs aren’t any more accurate than human guesswork, do they still have a place in the criminal justice system?
- Archaeology
Modern tech unravels mysteries of Egyptian mummy portraits
A museum exhibit showcases what modern analytical tools can reveal about ancient Egyptian funerary portraits and mummies.
- Tech
Mix of metals in this Picasso sculpture provides clues to its mysterious origins
The alloys used to cast Picasso’s bronze sculptures provide a valuable piece of the puzzle in reconstructing the histories of the works of art.
- Space
Americans would welcome alien life rather than fear it
Americans would probably take the discovery of extraterrestrial microbes pretty well.
- Genetics
Genes could record forensic clues to time of death
Scientists have found predictable patterns in the way our genetic machinery winds down after death.
- Science & Society
4 questions about the new U.S. budget deal and science
A new spending package could lead to U.S. science agencies getting a bump in funding.
- Science & Society
Top 10 papers from Physical Review’s first 125 years
The most prestigious journal in physics celebrates its 125th anniversary, highlighting dozens of its most famous papers.
- Physics
50 years on, nuclear fusion still hasn’t delivered clean energy
In 1968, scientists predicted that the world would soon use nuclear fusion as an energy source.
