We’re Losing Sight of the Night Sky. This First Nation Is Trying to Protect ItOn the Pacific coast, Huu-ay-aht First Nation has followed the stars for centuries. Now they’re safeguarding them for future generations
Our Sun May Once Have Had a Twin. What Happened to This Stellar Sibling?Many stars in our galaxy exist in pairs. Now scientists are finding clues that our Sun may once have had a companion of its own. The question is, where did it go?
Why Do Cats—and So Many Other Animals—Look Like They’re Wearing Socks?The possibilities of pigmentation are endless.
How an Experiment to Amplify Light in Hospital Operating Rooms Led to the Accidental Invention of the Snow GlobeThe origins of the decoration lie in Vienna’s 17th district, where the inventor’s descendants are still making them for collectors around the world.
Boxing Day Tsunami: Here’s What We Have Learned in the 20 Years Since the Deadliest Natural Disaster in Modern HistoryWe need early warnings, stronger seawalls, and people who know the risks.
What If Every Day Were November 18?In Solvej Balle’s new series of novels, the concept of a time loop is more than a gimmick; it’s a way of rethinking human existence.
Noninvasive imaging method can penetrate deeper into living tissueMetabolic imaging is a noninvasive method that enables clinicians and scientists to study living cells using laser light, which can help them assess disease progression and treatment responses.
Virtual lab powered by ‘AI scientists’ super-charges biomedical researchIn an effort to automate scientific discovery using artificial intelligence (AI), researchers have created a virtual laboratory that combines several ‘AI scientists’ — large language models with defined scientific roles — that can collaborate to achieve goals set by human researchers.
Research Finds Vaccines Are Not Behind the Rise in Autism. So What Is?When President-elect Donald J. Trump mused in a recent television interview about whether vaccines cause autism — a theory that has been discredited by dozens of scientific studies — autism researchers across the country collectively sighed in frustration.
Milk chocolate or dark? The answer could affect your risk of diabetes.But the findings came with an important caveat. It was only dark chocolate that was associated with a lower risk of developing the disease, not milk chocolate. It’s not entirely clear why that is.
What are 'attachment styles,' and is there science to back them up?Attachment styles are a popular way to understand how people experience relationships and why they might struggle to be vulnerable with loved ones.
‘A truly remarkable breakthrough’: Google’s new quantum chip achieves accuracy milestoneResearchers at Google have built a chip that has enabled them to demonstrate the first ‘below threshold’ quantum calculations — a key milestone in the quest to build quantum computers that are accurate enough to be useful.
How Hallucinatory A.I. Helps Science Dream Up Big BreakthroughsArtificial intelligence often gets criticized because it makes up information that appears to be factual, known as hallucinations. The plausible fakes have roiled not only chatbot sessions but lawsuits and medical records.
Math and Physics Can't Prove All TruthsYou will never be able to prove every mathematical truth. For me, this incompleteness theorem, discovered by Kurt Gödel, is one of the most incredible results in mathematics.
7 things to add or subtract for happiness, according to scienceAs a clinical psychologist and researcher, I love learning about the science of happiness. Nothing brings me happiness like studies about well-being: how to increase it, how to maintain it, how to spread it to others. There’s just one, pesky little problem: Many of these studies are nonsense.