Compressed air now keeps beer fresh by allowing bottle tops to be pushed on firmlyShutterstock/Parilov It’s a GasMark Miodownik (Viking (UK, out now); Mariner (US, 17 September)) WHEN Humphry Davy first gave nitrous oxide to people with tuberculosis in the late 1790s, hoping...
The Portuguese man o’war, or bluebottle, exists in different forms in oceans throughout the worldStephen Frink Collection/Alamy A new species of Portuguese man o’ war, or bluebottle, has been identified in the waters between Australia and New Zealand, following an...
If you see a blue screen of death, it is bad newsAlexPhotoStock/Alamy Large numbers of Microsoft Windows computers worldwide would not boot up today, instead displaying what is known as the “blue screen of death” (BSOD). Among those reportedly affected...
The Supreme Court Threw Us—And the Chevron Deference—Overboard with Its Fish RulingA case about Atlantic herring has resulted in SCOTUS ending a 40-year policy to defer to expert agencies when considering regulations. The effects will likely be felt far beyond...
This Equation Shows That the Universe Will Run out of StarsThe cosmos is dark. The Lilly-Madau diagram reveals that it will become much darker stillBy Florian Freistetter What makes the dark universe brighter—at least in certain places—is the light of...
The e-mail arrived, like a bolt from blue, on the otherwise typical Thursday afternoon of May 9. The message was from a journalist, asking me, an astronomer, for an interview about a farmer who had reportedly found space junk while...
A Freeze-Dried Woolly Mammoth Has Yielded the First Ever Fossilized ChromosomesFor the first time, researchers have reconstructed the 3D structure of ancient genetic material, in this case from a 52,000-year-old mammothBy Saima S. Iqbal Leonello Calvetti/Science Photo Library/Getty ImagesFor the...
In a solar system full of wonders, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot still stands out.This lushly red oval is obvious even through small telescopes, looking like a baleful eye staring out from the enormous gas giant planet. The Great Red Spot...
How to Reconnect with Old Friends Who Have Become StrangersPeople are reluctant to reach out to friends they have lost touch with—but both sides are gratified when they reconnectBy Lara B. Aknin & Gillian M. Sandstrom Take a look at...
Is the midlife crisis a common rite of passage—or just a mythical concept that makes for grabby headlines? Research measuring well-being has typically provided solid evidence for such a period of soul searching. Over the course of a lifetime, happiness...
