Side Effects May Include … A Completely New Hair Color?
An experimental therapy helped patients with a rare disease feel better. It also led to an accidental makeover.
Life Up Close
Detective Fiction Has Nothing on This Victorian-Science Murder Mystery
William Saville-Kent was a pioneering coral photographer. Was he also hiding a grisly secret?
Full-Bodied With Notes of Band-Aid and Medicine
Climate change is altering wine as we know it.
I Witnessed One of the Ocean’s Rarest Phenomena
During a “milky sea,” trillions of bacteria make the ocean light up glow-stick green.
A Mystery That Took 13,200 Years to Crack
Hidden in the tusk of a 34-year-old mastodon was a record of time and space that helped explain his violent death.
How to Be a Good Person Without Annoying Everyone
There’s a simple trick to provoking better behavior, without seeming like a self-righteous jerk.
Squirrels Could Make Monkeypox a Forever Problem
If the virus finds a new animal host, it could settle in for the long run—and cause more outbreaks in the future.
Beach Currents Don’t Have to Be This Deadly
Every year, hundreds of people drown after getting sucked into jets of seawater. Warning signs on their own can only do so much.
Will These Be the Last Polar Bears on Earth?
A newly identified population in Greenland is less dependent on the vanishing sea ice. But even they can’t hold out forever.
A Hotter, Poorer, and Less Free America
In the next few weeks, Senate Democrats could fall short—for arguably the third time in 30 years—of passing a climate deal. What will that mean for the planet and the country?
A Frog So Small, It Could Not Frog
Most frogs can jump and land with the precision and grace of an Olympic gymnast. And then there’s the pumpkin toadlet.
Our Powerful, Shiny New Space Telescope Got Its First Upsetting Ding
There are micrometeoroids, and then there are email-your-boss-on-vacation micrometeoroids.
Monkeypox Vaccines Are Too Gnarly for the Masses
Monkeypox is very different from COVID—and will require a very different vaccination approach.
How Animals Perceive the World
Every creature lives within its own sensory bubble, but only humans have the capacity to appreciate the experiences of other species. What we’ve learned is astounding.
If Your Car Hits a Deer You Might as Well Eat It
Eating roadkill makes so much sense.
Now Even NASA Wants to Talk About UFOs
The world’s top space agency has decided to lean into the discussion.
A Negative COVID Test Has Never Been So Meaningless
A string of negatives can still presage a clear-as-day positive.
Vaccines for the Littlest Kids Have Already Flopped
COVID vaccines for infants and toddlers are stalling and stumbling even before they’ve left the gate.
Biden’s Climate Goals Rest on a 71-Year-Old Defense Law
The Defense Production Act has become an important tool as the White House’s climate policy has stalled in Congress.
We Don’t Know Neptune at All
You know, the planet?
Don’t Wait to Get Your Kid Vaccinated
Kids are at risk of severe COVID outcomes—and immunity from infection isn’t enough.
What Are Ocean Predators Doing So Deep Underwater?
Whale sharks can dive more than a mile deep. Marine biologists are still trying to figure out why they bother.