There was a sharp fall in the number of low-lying clouds in 2023Busà Photography/Getty Images Changes in cloud cover may account for why global temperatures for the past two years have exceeded the predictions of climate models. 2023 and 2024...
A highly infectious strain of bird flu has been circulating worldwide since 2020ULISES RUIZ/AFP via Getty Images The H5N1 bird flu virus that has spread worldwide is already better at infecting people than earlier strains. What’s more, a single mutation...
Two female botanists—Elzada Clover and Louis Jotter—made headlines for riding the rapids of the Colorado River in 1938 in an effort to document the Grand Canyon’s plant life. In Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who...
December 5, 20244 min readTrump’s NASA Pick Is a Climate MysteryPresident-elect Donald Trump’s pick for NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, is a major supporter of human-crewed space exploration, but his views on the climate science that the agency does are unclearBy...
A bee pollinating a squash flowerRoman Kýbus/Alamy Plants treated with diverse species of fungi that live on roots grew larger flowers, prompting bees to visit them more often and spend more time there. “ might not only have benefits for...
December 5, 20242 min readFor Orcas, Dead Salmon Hats Are Back in Fashion after 37 YearsOrcas off the coast of Washington State are balancing dead fish on their heads like it’s the 1980s, but researchers still aren’t sure why they...
“The zip line played a pivotal role in democratising space”Victor Habbick Visions/Science Photo Library/Alamy Even as the price of space flight came down dramatically in the 2030s, the environmental and financial cost of using chemical rockets to escape Earth’s gravity...
A biblical approach Praise be, there is a new book from psychologist-turned-YouTuber Jordan Peterson. We Who Wrestle With God is about how ancient myths and legends, while perhaps not literally true, contain valuable and even universal lessons about life and...
Tencent is one of China’s largest technology companiesCynthia Lee/Alamy Chinese tech giant Tencent doesn’t seem to be affected by US export bans of computer chips that are crucial to the development of artificial intelligence systems – but even if such...
The respiratory bugs that surge every winter, from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to whooping cough, hit us with nasty coughs, fevers and chills—and they can also create the perfect opportunity for deadly pneumonia. Often misunderstood as a single sinister ailment...
