Fossilized Human Footprint Found Nestled in a Giant Sloth Footprint
An incredibly preserved set of tracks tell the story of an ancient hunt.
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Projects
Life Up Close
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Zoë van Dijk The Hunt for Wonder Drugs at the North Pole
In a race against antibiotic resistance, a Norwegian research team sails into the Arctic darkness.
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Neil Hall / Reuters What's Wrong With Growing Blobs of Brain Tissue?
These increasingly complex organoids aren't conscious—but we might not know when they cross that line.
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Jim Bourg / Reuters Scott Pruitt’s New Rule Could Completely Transform the EPA
It would not only undermine 30 years of clean-air regulations, but radically restrict what science the agency is allowed to use.
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Ronald Zak / AP Why Did It Take So Long to Expose Hans Asperger's Nazi Ties?
Suspicions dogged the autism researcher for years, but they were largely unverifiable, until now.
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Jamie Grill / Getty What Happens When Geneticists Talk Sloppily About Race
The field widely agrees that race is a social construct, but gets into trouble when it ignores semantics.
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Yuri Cortez / AFP / Getty How the ‘Golden Age’ of Travel Transformed American Cuisine
At the turn of the 20th century, one adventurous botanist brought kale, mangoes, and thousands of other plants to the U.S.
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The Conversation
Readers respond to our March 2018 issue.
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Stephen Lam / Reuters People Voted for Trump Because They Were Anxious, Not Poor
A new study finds that Trump voters weren’t losing income or jobs. Instead, they were concerned about their place in the world.
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23andMe 23andMe Wants Its DNA Data to Be Less White
The company is offering free kits to researchers studying populations in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere—but the ethics are tricky.
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Melissa Ilardo How Asia's Super Divers Evolved for a Life At Sea
Scientists are starting to uncover the genetic basis of the Bajau people’s incredible breath-holding abilities.
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Staff / Reuters Your Lyft Ride Is Now Carbon-Neutral. Your Uber Isn't.
The ride-hailing upstart is investing millions to help reduce global warming.
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Sue Ogrocki / AP NASA Finally Gets a New Leader
Nearly 15 months after President Trump was sworn in, the space agency has a permanent administrator.
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Portra / Getty Images When Will the Gender Gap in Science Disappear?
A new study estimates that it will take 16 years for women and men to publish papers in equal numbers. For physics, it will take 258.
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Emmanuel Foudrot / Reuters In a Few Centuries, Cows Could Be the Largest Land Animals Left
Throughout our entire history, humans and other hominins have selectively killed off the largest mammals.
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Avi Jacob, Bar-Ilan University Microscopy Unit Scientists Genetically Engineered Flies to Ejaculate Under Red Light
Their experiments confirm that sex is pleasurable, even for animals we think of as simple.
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David Gray / Reuters Since 2016, Half of All Coral in the Great Barrier Reef Has Died
A new study warns it has become a “highly altered, degraded system.”
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Frank Bach / Shutterstock Europe Was Once Obsessed With Fake Dilapidated Buildings
Decadence, awe, and jealousy inspired a strange 18th-century architectural trend.
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Esther Aarts How to Sway a Baboon Despot
What other species can teach us about democracy
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Olena Shmahalo / Quanta Magazine Doubt Surrounds the Only Experiment That Claims to See Dark-Matter Particles
For two decades, one research team has detected collisions between dark and ordinary matter—but no one else can replicate their findings.
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Image Source / Getty How You React When Startled Is a Window Into Your Soul
The startle reflex evolved to protect the body, but it also reveals your thoughts and feelings.
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Eleanor Shakespeare / Mosaic Why a 'Lifesaving' Depression Treatment Didn't Pass Clinical Trials
... but could still be a groundbreaking therapy
