Ed Yong
The Next Plague Is Coming. Is America Ready?
The epidemics of the early 21st century revealed a world unprepared, even as the risks continue to multiply. Much worse is coming.
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Lucas Jackson / Reuters Oops, the Oldest Fossils Ever Found Might Be Just Rocks
A set of cone-like formations in Greenland was said to be the work of 3.7-billion-year-old bacteria, but another team maintains it’s really not.
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Steven R Smith / Shutterstock The Butterflies That Hear With Their Wings
A petite group called the satyrines uses swollen veins to channel sound into tiny ears.
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Senjuti Saha A Simpler Way to Get to the Bottom of Mysterious Illnesses in Poor Countries
Backed by major funders, a group of scientists has created a platform to help the world’s disease detectives. Will it work?
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Goran Tomasevic / Reuters It Will Take Millions of Years for Mammals to Recover From Us
In less than 130,000 years, humans have sawed off the most evolutionarily distinct branches from our family tree.
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The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund Male Gorillas Love Hanging Around With Infants
And those who spend the most time babysitting end up with more babies of their own.
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Scott Audette / Reuters What Manatees Do During Hurricane Season
The gentle giants have ended up in golf courses, forests, and backyards.
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Jose Luis Gonzalez / Reuters The Maya Kept Jaguar Zoos for Centuries
A chemical analysis of excavated bones shows that Mesoamericans had a long history of keeping the fiercest predators around in captivity.
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AFP / Getty Images Everyday Discrimination Literally Raises Women’s Blood Pressure
A new study adds to the evidence that routine moments of “disdain, distance, and disrespect” have health consequences.
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Havakuk Levison / Reuters A Controversial Virus Study Reveals a Critical Flaw in How Science Is Done
After researchers resurrected a long-dead pox, some critics argue that it's too easy for scientists to make decisions of global consequence.
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Katerina Douka The Game-Changing Technique Behind an Amazing New Archaeological Discovery
There’s an easy way to find an ancient human in a bag of bones.
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Eduardo Zattara What a Beetle’s Genital Worms Reveal About the Concept of Individuality
Dung beetles sexually transmit nematodes, and that’s a good thing—for them, and their young.
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Audun Rikardsen The Lingering Curse That’s Killing Killer Whales
Long-banned pollutants called PCBs could wipe out many orca groups within the next century.
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Steve Kajiura Why Your Vacuum Clogs but a Manta Ray Doesn’t
The self-cleaning structures in the animal’s mouth could inspire new designs for human-made filters.
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Ilya Bobrovskiy / Australian National University A 558-Million-Year-Old Mystery Has Been Solved
Scientists have finally confirmed that a weird ribbed oval called Dickinsonia is an animal.
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Thomas Kleindinst What Ecstasy Does to Octopuses
Despite their wacky brains, these intelligent animals seem to respond to the drug in a very similar way to humans.
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Thomas Mukoya The Three Major Cartels Behind the Downfall of Africa’s Elephants
DNA from dung and tusks helped expose the three major groups behind most of Africa’s ivory smuggling.
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Yves Forestier / Getty Wiping Out the Brain’s Retired Cells Prevents a Hallmark of Alzheimer's
A study in mice hints at a new approach for thwarting neurodegenerative diseases—but many questions remain.
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Carlo Allegri / Reuters The Genes That Never Go Out of Style
Fifteen years after the Human Genome Project, scientists are still mostly studying genes that have already been well studied.
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Pawel Kopczynski / Reuters Bacteria in a Dinosaur Bone Reignite a Heated Debate
The discovery of modern microbes in a deeply buried fossil has complicated an already tangled dispute in paleontology.
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Craig Foster An Ancient Crosshatch May Be the Earliest Drawing Ever Found
Red lines on a 73,000-year-old rock predate other ancient drawings by at least 30,000 years.
