December 20, 20242 min readAncient Moon Melt Event May Explain 150-Million-Year Gap in Age EstimatesThe moon may have melted 4.35 billion years ago—explaining a lunar age mysteryBy Payal Dhar edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Javier Zayas Photography/Getty ImagesThe moon is...
The orange fur on the underside of Nepenthes pongoides leaves is why the pitcher plant was named after orangutansAlviana Damit A newly described species of pitcher plant, one of the largest and furriest ever found, has been identified on a...
Small website owners say they may be forced to shut downPortra/Getty Images The UK’s new Online Safety Act may result in hundreds of community websites and forums being permanently shut down, as site administrators say they fear the law imposes...
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, snapped by the Perseverance roverNASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS A little helicopter finally met its end this year. NASA’s Ingenuity drone made its 72nd and final flight on Mars in January, damaging one of its rotors on landing, concluding...
Transmission electron micrograph of parts of the norovirus pathogenBSIP SA/Alamy A global international trial of an mRNA vaccine against norovirus is getting underway with the aim of reducing the health burden caused by the infamous “winter vomiting” bug. The trial...
Rachel Feltman: If I asked you to guess how many animal species are threatened with extinction right now, would you have a number in your head? Is it hundreds, thousands?Feltman: Well, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature,...
Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse!Did it explode? No? Okay, then.But it seems fair to ask: Why “Betelgeuse”? It’s an odd-seeming name for a star. That’s because it’s a corrupted translation of the Arabic phrase yad al-jawzā’, which roughly translates to “the hand...
This year is the centennial of the discovery of human brain waves. Few people know the story of that startling finding, because the true story was suppressed and lost to history. Almost two decades ago I visited the pioneering scientists’...
December 20, 20244 min readOur Bodies Are So Ready to Celebrate the Rebirth of the SunThe winter solstice is the culmination of a period every year when each cell in our body literally craves more lightBy Gary Stix edited by...
December 20, 20243 min readWhat Gives Christmas Trees Their Crisp, Cozy Scent?Learn which molecules are responsible for giving Christmas trees their distinct, crisp-yet-spicy scentBy Meghan Bartels edited by Lauren J. Young Iuliia Bondar/Getty ImagesNothing smells quite like a Christmas tree—but...
