The site of a Roman-era lead mine at Charterhouse in Somerset, UKAndrew Wilson Extensive silver mining may have exposed ancient Romans to high levels of lead pollution in the air, probably leading to a general drop in their IQ and...
A wastewater treatment plant in CaliforniaJustin Sullivan/Getty Images Wastewater treatment facilities are a major source of PFAS contamination in drinking water in the US – they discharge enough of the “forever chemicals” to raise concentrations above safe levels for an...
Prime numbers have captivated mathematicians for centuries with their unpredictable and seemingly random distribution. In a groundbreaking preprint study, researchers devised a novel method that bolsters our hunt for the cagey values—but also reveals limits to our ability to detect...
January 6, 20252 min readBiden Awards Three Climate Experts Nation’s Highest Science HonorRichard Alley, Lawrence Edwards and David Tilman were among the two dozen honorees who received the National Medal of Science or the National Medal of Technology and Innovation...
The coronavirus was first detected at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, ChinaHECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images When the first signs of an unknown virus began showing up in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, scientists raced to understand what...
© William Horton, William Horton Photography Every now and then, it is worth pausing for a second and giving thanks to the many, ever so slightly different versions of you that exist in parallel realities. It is these alternative selves...
Velvet ants sting by injecting venom from their abdomenJojo Dexter/Getty Images The sting of a female velvet ant is one of the most painful in the animal kingdom. Now, researchers have discovered that these insects have multiple proteins in their...
Pluto (right) and its moon Charon, photographed by NASA’s New Horizons probe in 2015NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI Pluto and its moon Charon may have been briefly locked together in a cosmic “kiss”, before the dwarf planet released the smaller body and recaptured it...
January 6, 20255 min readThe Real Reason People Don’t Trust in Science Has Nothing to Do with ScientistsPropaganda works, is the real upshot of a survey showing lingering post-pandemic distrust of scienceBy Dan Vergano edited by Jeanna BrynerDr. Anthony Fauci,...
This mathematical trick will let you work out the weekday of any dateH. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Alamy Time comes in cycles, and we deal with it using a cyclic number system. What time is 5 hours after 10pm? Hopefully you would say...
