The Mystery at the Center of the Solar System
A spacecraft has finally gotten close enough to the sun to gather clues about some lingering questions.
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Projects
Life Up Close
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Zoe van Djik How Roadkill Became an Environmental Disaster
To save Brazil’s giant anteaters, scientists are grappling with one of the planet’s most transformative forces: roads.
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Brian Yarvin / Getty The Fermented Food That Made It Big
How a staple of Korean cuisine became a flavor at California Pizza Kitchen
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BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images The Disappearing Y Chromosome
It’s surprisingly common for men to start losing entire chromosomes from blood cells as they age.
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Courtesy of Chuang Zhao Why Mammals Are So Good at Hearing (And Chewing)
Before an evolutionary breakthrough, the tiny bones of ears were part of the jaw.
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NASA The Wonder of Fire Without Gravity
It’s about to get lit on the International Space Station.
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Reuters / Ognen Teofilovski 5 Big Trends That Increased Earth’s Carbon Pollution
For the third year in a row, carbon emissions from fossil fuels have hit a record high.
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Hamilton / REA / Redux John Kerry’s New Bipartisan, Star-Studded ‘War’ on Climate Change
In an interview, the former secretary of state talks about the climate news that makes him want to curse, and his new alliance with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Leonardo DiCaprio.
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Charles W. Harrity / AP The Accidental Experiment That Changed Men’s Lives
The Vietnam draft lotteries functioned as a randomized experiment—which has allowed social scientists to study its life-changing effects.
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Kirsty Johnston The False Promise of Morning Routines
Why everyone’s mornings seem more productive than yours
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M. S. Savoca The Blue Whale’s Heart Beats at Extremes
For the first time, scientists recorded a cardiogram from the largest animal that has ever lived.
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NASA An Alarming Discovery in an Astronaut’s Bloodstream
A study has turned up a side effect of human spaceflight that no one had observed before.
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Public domain A Hint About the Affliction That Kept Marat in the Bathtub
Ever since the French revolutionary’s assassination in a bathtub, doctors and scientists have wondered why he had to spend so much time in there to begin with.
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Justin A. Morris / Getty What America Lost When It Lost the Bison
By migrating in huge herds, bison behave like a force of nature, engineering and intensifying waves of spring greenery that other grazers rely on.
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MIranda Barnes What It Means to Name a Forgotten Murder Victim
Thirteen years ago, a young woman was found dead in small-town Texas. She was nicknamed “Lavender Doe” for the purple shirt she was wearing. Her real identity would remain a mystery until amateur genealogists took up her case.
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Maciej Rebisz Three Physicists Stumbled Upon a Striking Mathematical Discovery
Describing neutrino oscillations is notoriously tricky. The search for a shortcut led to unexpected places.
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Erin Scott / Reuters So Has the Green New Deal Won Yet?
Since it debuted a year ago, the idea has lost, and won, and could lose again.
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Arterra / Universal Images Group / Getty Apes Might Know That You Don’t Know What They Know
The latest volley in a decades-long debate about apes’ theory of mind involved one scientist dressing up as King Kong and stealing from his colleague.
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NASA The Second Moon Landing Was Much Rowdier
With a successful first mission in the books, the crew of Apollo 12 was under less pressure.
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Jonathan Ernst / Reuters How to Cut U.S. Carbon Pollution by Nearly 40 Percent in 10 Years
A bill in Congress could slash American greenhouse-gas emissions. It’s even bipartisan—if you squint.
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Glenn Harvey The Next Olympics Mascot Might Have Been a Mutant Morning Glory
Scientists dreamed of genetically engineering a flower patterned in the Games’ blue-and-white checkerboard emblem.
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Jeff Haynes / Reuters What to Do With That Rotting Pumpkin Corpse
Millions end up rotting in landfills. But Halloween’s leftover pumpkins don’t have to go to waste.
