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How Animal Suffering Can Ruin Lab Experiments
Larry Carbone on his 3 greatest revelations while writing The Hidden Lives of Lab Animals
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Space Age Technology Reveals Secrets of Bronze Age Sword
Scientists in Berlin performed a battery of tests on a 3,400-year-old weapon
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The Long, Dirty History of Our Capitol’s Waters
The recent Potomac River disaster follows centuries of pollution—but things are looking up
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Newly Discovered Prehistoric Crocodilian Had Legs That Went All the Way Up
This stilt-legged reptile stalked the grasslands of Triassic Britain
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Short sharp looks at science
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Can Morality Survive Climate Collapse?
Megha Majumdar’s acclaimed novel A Guardian and a Thief explores a near-future where scarcity forces hard choices
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Space Exploration Speaks to the Core of Who We Are
Astrobiologist Caleb Scharf’s 3 greatest revelations while writing his latest book, The Giant Leap
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Crick and Watson Did Not Steal Franklin’s Data
Matthew Cobb’s 3 greatest revelations while writing his book Crick: A Mind in Motion
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Recreating the Smells of History
Using chemistry, archival records and AI, scientists are reviving the aromas of old libraries, mummies, and battlefields
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What Would Richard Feynman Make of AI Today?
The scientific sage was always suspicious of grand promises delivered before details were understood
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Ann Druyan on How NASA’s Golden Records Got Made
A comic about humanity’s love letter to interstellar space
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We’re Evolving Beyond This Rock Right Now
Life is already busy making its transition to being interplanetary
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The Confabulations of Oliver Sacks
A neurologist reckons with recent revelations about the celebrated doctor and author
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He Erased Memory in Mice. Then Thought About Erasing His Own
Sunk in grief and alcoholism, this neuroscientist discovered the power of memory in himself
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To Be More Creative, Immigrate
Creativity flourishes when people cross borders—and when those borders blur through deep, human connection
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Naked Clams and Sunken Ships
A brazen plan to grow an animal that has been the bane of sailors for centuries—to feed the world
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The Problem with Farmed Seafood
We’re decimating the ocean to feed farmed fish. But an innovative solution has surfaced.
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Genetic Ancestry Doesn’t Tell Your Whole Story
If you’re looking for your genetic origin story, your DNA will only take you so far.
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AI’s Innate Bias Against Animals
Chatbots and robots are a setback to animal welfare—but have the potential to be a step forward
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The Psychedelic Scientist
High on ayahuasca, Bruce Damer saw how life on Earth began. He may very well be right.
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The Hidden Landscape Holding Back the Sea
The fate of our planet’s coasts rests on Antarctic bedrock
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Gaia’s Got a Fever
An aging Earth, like an aging body, is increasingly vulnerable to heat’s fatal strikes
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In the Land of the Eyeless Dragons
The cave-dwelling olm is a canary in the coal mine for environmental change
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Visit the 7 Most Extreme Planets in the Universe
From molten glass rain to oceans of lava, an intergalactic tour of the most terrifying and beautiful climates out there
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The Sean Carrolls Explain the Universe
Why are we here? Is there life on other planets? The renowned scientists who share a name share their answers to life’s big questions.
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The Soviet Rebel of Music
He composed on a computer in a dangerous time. His echo is still heard today.
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How Whales Could Help Us Speak to Aliens
Learning to decode complex communication on Earth may give us a leg up if intelligent life from space makes contact.
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The Retiree Who Inspired the Wright Brothers to Take Flight
Octave Chanute’s engineering prowess laid the foundation for powered planes -
A Rare Great White “Ghost” Caught in the Mediterranean
It’s good news for a vulnerable species on the decline -
Did Astronomers Finally Witness a Black Hole Eat a White Dwarf for the First Time?
Analysis of a violent, unprecedented cosmic outburst -
The Mountain Man Who Measured the Sky’s Brilliance
Pioneering alpinist and scientist Horace Bénédict de Saussure brought us a curious relic to capture the blues above us -
The 3-D Secrets of the “Gravity Hole” Under Antarctica
“How does our climate connect to what’s going on inside our planet?” -
The World Is Becoming Too Loud for Birds
Some sound baffling could give birds the reprieve they need from our noise pollution -
Chins: The Evolutionary Accident Unique to Homo Sapiens
New research reveals the evolutionary accident that is the human chin -
Does Belief in God, not Political Party, Drive Conservatism?
Religious “nones” may be less socially liberal than they used to be -
Scientists Create Map of Deadly Scorpion Hotspots
“The findings could save lives” -
Giant Pythons Once Roamed Prehistoric Taiwan
The discovery of a vertebra is another piece of the puzzle of missing apex predators -
Here’s What the Whiskers on an Elephant’s Trunk Do
It’s an elephant’s way of getting a feel for their surroundings -
This Forest Rodent Serves as a Reservoir for the Deadly Mpox Virus
Maybe we should call mpox “squirrelpox” -
Pulsar Found Near the Center of the Milky Way Could Test Einstein’s Theories
A cosmic timekeeper near a supermassive black hole has astrophysicists salivating -
Dogs Can Have Dementia, Too
Like their owners, many of them face diminished mental capacity in their old age -
ChatGPT Gave Out My Office Address. Then Someone Showed Up.
AI consciousness expert Susan Schneider on being stalked by chatbot users, the Moltbook meltdown, and why agentic AI isn’t ready for prime time -
The Cosmic Collision That Formed Saturn’s Rings
Computer simulations offer new insights into the oddities of the ringed planet’s moons -
How the Fastest Land Animal in North America Got Its Need for Speed
Their speediness was likely an adaptation to dashing around increasingly patchy habitats -
Is the Supervolcano in Yellowstone About to Erupt?
Weird things are happening in Yellowstone National Park -
When Galileo’s Cosmic Convictions Landed Him in Court
More than 300 years later, the astronomer was finally vindicated -
This Is What an Egyptian Mummy Smells Like
Every smell tells a unique story
