How Your Body Clock Affects Your Mental Health and Ways to Keep It in Sync
Our internal body clock helps regulate sleep, alertness and mood, following a roughly 24-hour cycle influenced by light and darkness
Chimps Can Be Thieves, But They Hesitate to Rob Their Friends
And their friends were quicker to forgive them for their thievery
7,500 Light-Years From Earth, A Cat’s Head Appears
A beautiful new NASA image of the Carina Nebula
The Iron Age Queen Who Helped Bring Britain to its Knees
New scholarship reveals an exiled Roman client king was a woman
Archaeologists Unravel an 88-Year-Old Murder Mystery
The killing of James Leslie Starkey
Latest Stories
The Myth of Mommy Brain
A conversation with neuroscientist Susana Carmona, author of “A Mother’s Brain,” about how the brain changes in motherhood
Protein Can Help Build and Preserve Muscle, But Eating More Has Its Limits
It’s also highly personal
Read Stories from Our Newest Print Issue: The Stupid Issue
See moreThe Elegance of a Stupid Question
Are computers in mathematics rewriting the definitions of stupid and smart?
The Resistance Is Here
They didn’t plan to be activists. But scientists have united to overturn Trump’s drastic cuts to science.
The Return of a Discredited Pseudoscience
Eugenics is rearing its ugly head again in today’s crucible of politics and culture
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Cutting-edge science, unraveled by the brightest living thinkers.
Astronomy
See more AstronomyA Collapsing Star Produced an Afterglow Brighter Than Its Galaxy
“The explosion packed roughly a billion years of the sun’s energy output into a pencil-thin beam”
“We Will Find a Graviton Before We Find Dark Matter”
A quantum information scientist on the hunt for the elemental mediator of gravity and why AI can’t solve physics problems creatively
Dead Star Offers a Glimpse Into Our Solar System’s Future
A ring of debris hints at planetary survivors
History
See more HistoryThe Original X-Men
These intellectual superheroes revolutionized science in Britain and beyond by developing independent research
This Is the Oldest Peace Treaty Ever Discovered
Maybe there are a few things we can still learn from it
Psychology
See more PsychologyWhat Can We Learn About Happiness From the People Who Study It?
Happiness pioneers recently gathered to discuss the good life
Inside the Mind of a Narcissist
Their brains don’t sync the same way when it comes to processing empathy
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Environment
See more EnvironmentZoology
See more ZoologyNearly 3 Million Eels Gather at an Underwater Mountain—But What For?
It’s the same ritual every year
A Cross-Species Same-Sex Love Story
In Ethiopia, scientists documented repeated sex and bonding between a bull and a male donkey
Can Whales Sing with Their Mouths Full?
Their songs provide a new way to monitor their feeding behavior
Philosophy
See more PhilosophyThe Quest for Wisdom in Turbulent Times
A conversation with three Harvard professors about the practice of wisdom in everyday living
Could AI Have Consciousness That Isn’t Human-Like?
Philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith on AI consciousness and existential risk
What a Picture of a Dog Has to Do with Reason and Logic
People who can’t see images in their minds challenge an old philosophical standby
Why Your Shrink Should Prescribe Exercise
A new viewpoint paper argues we’ve been thinking about physical activity the wrong way
Read more
See all postsWant to Use AI to Improve Your Work? Have It Disagree with You
Prompting an AI model to fight with your point of view can raise novel solutions
Tourist Posts a Photo to a Facebook Group, Accidentally Discovering 120-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Footprint
Not your average vacation snap
The Monstrous Raptors That Threatened Our Ancestors
Did birds of prey shape human evolution?
Bizarre Fruit-Eating “Hell Chicken” Suggests Dinosaurs Played a Role in Flowering Plant Evolution
Its jaws were fruit-mashing machines
Listen to the Earliest Known Recordings of a Nearly Dead American Language
These “lost” recordings of the Creole language offer unique insights that written transcripts can’t provide
Meds Are Often the Go-to for Dementia Patients. Is There a Better Way?
Federal statistics show nursing homes still overuse medications to quell the behavioral problems that come with cognitive decline. Experts advocate for alternatives
Is Sleeping in on the Weekends Bad for Your Heart?
A new study links sleep regularity to cardiovascular health








































