The Existential Wonder of Space
How old will you be when Halley’s Comet comes back? When people walk on Mars? When we explore Jupiter’s mysterious, icy moon?
Labs Are Scooping Up Animals Killed by Wind Turbines
Dead birds and bats could help scientists make green energy safer.
Alaska Cannot Afford to Lose Its Ice Roads
Climate change poses a threat to frozen rivers that connect isolated villages.
Scientists Tried to Break Cuddling. Instead, They Broke 30 Years of Research.
Oxytocin, often lauded as the “hug hormone,” might not be necessary to induce affection.
Asteroid Measurements Make No Sense
Is this space rock the size of a train car or 22 penguins?
Whatever Happened to Toilet Plumes?
Beware the lidless toilet, even if one won’t give you COVID-19.
Are Standardized Tests Racist, or Are They Anti-racist?
Yes.
The Fight Over California’s Ancient Water
It’s legal to drink 10,000-year-old water. But is it right?
A ‘Carbon Bomb’ Lurks in America’s Marshlands
Salt marshes could flip from climate friend to climate foe.
Your Diet Can Change Your Spit
What you eat influences the proteins in your saliva. Try enough bitter foods, and you might just grow to like them.
There’s Snow on Mars
And it would be strangely beautiful to behold.
Don’t Fear the Handshake
The gesture has survived plenty of outbreaks before COVID, and it will almost certainly outlast more to come.
Dust Lakes Keep Popping Up Across the West
The demise of salt lakes threatens humans and wildlife alike.
Madagascar’s Fishers Are Stuck on Land
As a result of stormier seas caused by climate change, lifelong fishers have more than a month’s less ocean time on average than they did 40 years ago.
The Case for ‘Kraken’
Any name for the coronavirus is better than a jumble of letters and numbers.
Cities Really Can Be Both Denser and Greener
A classic urban trade-off might not be our destiny. That’s great news for the climate.
Can We Talk About How Weird Baby Mammals Are?
Kangaroos with giant arms. Bats with clown feet. Sometimes, young animals’ proportions are shockingly different from their parents’.
Suddenly, California Has Too Much Water
The state is being tossed between awful climate extremes.
The Universe Is More in Our Hands Than Ever Before
Astronomy is in a new era. It involves giant lasers.
The Ice Age Has Nothing on ‘Snowball Earth’
Five hundred million years before the dawn of dinosaurs, strange animals ruled a frozen planet.