You Try Constricting Your Prey and Breathing at the Same Time
Boa constrictors have figured out a way to inflate only parts of their lungs.
America Is About to Test How Long ‘Normal’ Can Hold
Whenever it arrives, the next surge could put the country’s tolerance for disease and death in full relief.
American Companies Can’t Sugarcoat Their Carbon Pollution Anymore
Three ways to think about the SEC’s new climate rule
We’ve Found 5,000 Exoplanets and We’re Still Alone
So far, the search for a truly Earth-like world has turned up empty.
Climate Change Is Making Allergy Season Even Worse
Temperatures are rising, and they’re taking pollen counts with them.
America’s Approach to Energy Security Is Broken
This should have been the moment for renewables. What happened?
America’s Flu-Shot Problem Is Also Its Next COVID-Shot Problem
The successes and failures of annual flu-shot campaigns hold lessons for the future of COVID vaccines.
Tuberculosis Got to South America Through … Seals?
Ancient DNA reveals unexpected twists in the history of this deadly disease.
The Global Oil Market Is Based on a Fiction
What we call petroleum is more like a category of chemicals than a single thing.
A New Strategy for Staying One Step Ahead of the Virus
We’re tracking how the virus is changing over time. Why not monitor immunity too?
The World Has One Big Chance to Fix Plastics
For a global plastics treaty to succeed, it will need to tamp down production—and recognize the lives and livelihoods that depend on plastic still.
People Deserve to Know Their Houses Are Going to Burn
The old way of insuring against fires isn’t working anymore.
The Freeloading Boyfriends That Just Won’t Let Go
Male Santa Marta harlequin toads piggyback on their mate for months before egg meets sperm.
How in the World Did We Get Venus Flytraps?
Scientists are closing in on one of botany’s great riddles
The Pandemic After the Pandemic
Long COVID isn’t going away, and we still do not have a way to fully prevent it, cure it, or really to quantify it.
Vaccinating Kids Has Never Been Easy
Uptake of COVID vaccines for kids has been slow, but it has been slow for other vaccines too.
On Top of Everything Else, Nuclear War Would Be a Climate Problem
Even a “minor” skirmish would wreck the planet.
The Coronavirus’s Next Move
Here are four shapes that the next variant might take—which will also dictate the shape of our response.
America Is the World’s Largest Oil Producer. So Why Is Losing Russia’s Oil Such a Big Deal?
The U.S. might be “energy independent,” but it still can’t control production.
A Plot Twist in the Milky Way
Astronomers have cracked a mystery 1,000 light-years from Earth.