September 17, 20243 min readBook Review: How One Weird Rodent Ecologist Tried to Change the Fate of HumanityA biography of the scientist whose work led to fears of a ‘population bomb’By Ben Goldfarb NONFICTIONDr. Calhoun's Mousery: The Strange Tale of...
This article is part of “Innovations In: Sickle Cell Disease,” an editorially independent special report that was produced with financial support from Vertex Pharmaceuticals.Nathan Wood is 15, lanky and tall. He longs to play basketball; he lives in Yonkers, just...
What Earth may have looked like with a ringOliver Hull After a near miss with an asteroid 466 million years ago, Earth may have developed a Saturn-like ring of debris that lasted for tens of millions of years – and...
The CMS detector at the Large Hadron ColliderSciTech Image/James King-Holmes/Alamy Stock Photo A possible crack in the standard model of particle physics seems to be shrinking, as new data from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) contradicts a previous puzzling result...
Some microbes have a growing resistance to our antibioticsiStockphoto The number of global deaths directly attributable to antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections is forecast to rise from a record 1.27 million a year in 2019 to 1.91 million a year by 2050....
Holes at the top of this image are vertical shafts to underground aqueducts called qanatsNazarij Buławka et al Most of the ancient underground aqueducts that enabled humans to settle in the world’s hottest and driest regions have been lost over...
September 16, 20242 min readThe Brain Really Does Choke Under PressureStudy links choking under pressure to the brain region that controls movementBy Jude Coleman & Nature magazineBasketball star Isaiah Thomas reacts after missing a crucial shot. Hector Amezcua/Sacramento Bee/Tribune News...
This piece is part of Scientific American’s column The Science of Parenting. For more, go here.As we strive to keep our kids safe, healthy and happy, detecting and treating developmental and other conditions early is essential. For this reason, pediatric...
September 16, 20244 min readWas Life on Earth Inevitable or Incredible?We can’t yet tell how life got its start on Earth. That’s one great reason to keep looking for life elsewhereBy Mario Livio & Jack W. SzostakAn imagined exoplanet surface...
September 16, 20242 min readCaterpillars Sense Hungry Wasps’ Electrical FieldPredators’ electricity gives caterpillars an early warningBy Gennaro Tomma Nigel Cattlin/Alamy Stock PhotoSome animals have evolved an ability to detect the invisible electrical fields that fill the world around us. This...
