A Volcano, a Fishing Boat, and a Narrow Escape
Two government biologists barely made it off a remote Alaskan island alive. No one had known it was ready to erupt.
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?
The Turtle Poachers Say They Have No Choice
During the pandemic, hungry Costa Ricans have been resorting to an illegal practice that was once on the decline.
How Do We Know What Ancient People Ate? Their Dirty Dishes.
New scientific techniques have turned ancient food into less of a mystery.
The Trash Parrots of Australia Are Very Annoying but Very Clever
Parrots in the suburbs of Sydney are learning how to open trash cans from one another.
Are Wind Turbines a Danger to Wildlife? Ask the Dogs.
Humans are terrible at finding bats and birds killed by wind turbines. Dogs are great at it.
We’re Zeroing In On the ‘Holy Grail’ of COVID-19 Immunity
There’s no good way of measuring whether your vaccine worked—yet.
Why Do Mammals Kill Each Other?
A grisly census hints at a few reasons some of our closest kin might take each other’s lives
Carbon Tax, Beloved Policy to Fix Climate Change, Is Dead at 47
It reshaped how the world thought about climate change. But its prized trait—bloodless economic efficiency—won it few friends on the right or left.
Jeff Bezos Knows Who Paid for Him to Go to Space
The world’s richest man commissioned the rocket, but his Amazon empire—the customers and the workers—covered the bill.
Vaccination in America Might Have Only One Tragic Path Forward
COVID-19 vaccination rates have fallen off a cliff. Will it take a deadly summer surge to change things?
Jeff Bezos Is Ready to Cross a Cosmically Controversial Line
The billionaire is preparing to fly to space—but where does space actually begin?
Maybe It’s Aliens, or Maybe It’s Volcanoes
Scientists are still trying to figure out what could be brewing on the planet next door.
California’s Cliffs Are Collapsing One by One
Researchers are stepping up their efforts to understand why—and when—bluffs come crashing down.
Jeff Bezos Has Picked an Unusual Space Crew
No group like this one has ever gone to space before.
COVID-19’s Effects on Kids Are Even Stranger Than We Thought
Doctors have found a concerning link between the rare pediatric complication known as MIS-C and a syndrome related to tampon use.
The Truth Behind the Amazon Mystery Seeds
Why did so many Americans receive strange packages they didn’t think they’d ordered?
The Mystery at the Base of One of Biology’s Strangest Relationships
Little crustaceans called tongue biters drain the blood from the tongues of fish. Then things get weird.
Lizards Took ‘This Is Fine’ Way Too Literally
When flames erupt on the Iberian Peninsula, reptiles don’t sweat a thing. The mites that suck their blood are far less thrilled.
The Green New Deal Does Not, Strictly Speaking, Exist
The idea has reshaped global climate policy, but is far less concrete than its supporters have been led to believe.
The FDA Is a Melting Iceberg
For decades, scientists have been crying out for action. Will they finally be heard?
Post-vaccination Infections Come in 2 Different Flavors
Lumping all breakthroughs together, regardless of symptoms, miscasts what our COVID-19 vaccines can do.