The Environmental Havoc a Pet Goldfish Can Cause
The world is not your aquarium
Birds Are More Afraid of Women Than of Men
What’s going on here?
Chernobyl, 40 Years Later
A lot has changed at the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster
Scorpions Wield Metal-Tipped Weapons
They pack an even more impressive punch than previously thought
New Frog Species Gets Olympian Name
It’s a big honor for such a small amphibian
Latest Stories
The Mix-up at the Heart of the Supreme Court’s Conversion Therapy Ruling
A psychiatrist on the crucial distinction the case glosses over, how media coverage has made it worse, and why that’s dangerous for LGBTQ+ youth
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Cutting-edge science, unraveled by the brightest living thinkers.
Astronomy
See more Astronomy(Almost) A Eulogy for Voyager
The robotic space probe is 15 billion miles away and is nearing the end of its life in the distant cosmos
The Origins of Uranus’ Distant Rings Hint at a Hidden Moon
Astronomers are circling the answers
The Peace That an Eclipse Brings
The total solar eclipse in 2024 hushed the Earth by striking awe in the humans in its path
History
See more HistoryRome Was Built Today
Celebrating the scientific and technical contributions of Rome on the mythical birthday of the eternal city
The Birth of Genius
Leonardo da Vinci, polymath and victim of the vagaries of science funding, was born on this day
The Bra-and-Girdle Maker That Fashioned the Impossible for NASA
Crafting a spacesuit demanded perfection from seamstresses to gluers to engineers — every stitch could mean life or death
Psychology
See more Psychology
The Science of Spooky Sounds
A conversation with a “pseudoscience” researcher about how infrasound could be linked to ghosts
The Problem with Psychedelic Research
A conversation with a psychedelics researcher about a fundamental flaw in how we test these mind-bending drugs
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Environment
See more EnvironmentWhat Happens When Giants Disappear from Ecosystems?
Big animals leave big holes in the food web
Earth Day Started with an Oil Spill
The day of environmental action and protest has grown and evolved over the past 56 years
Zoology
See more ZoologyThese Bees Change Color with the Weather
But the biological significance of their shifts is a mystery
Philosophy
See more PhilosophyThe Bad Seed and the Problem of Blame
A conversation with behavioral geneticist Kathryn Paige Harden about the heritability of vice
A Light in the Dark: Finding the Good in the Natural World
Is it absurd to think that science can inform our values?
How ‘Tiny Shortcuts’ Are Poisoning Science
Seemingly harmless data tweaks are undermining the integrity of the entire field. We must define the problem to prevent it
Our Eyes Originated in a 600-Million-Year-Old Cyclops
There was a time when one eye was better than two
Read more
See all postsThe Predictive Powers of Bear Poop
It doesn’t even need to leave the intestines to tell a story
Where Brains Process Smell
First “smell map” reveals organization where scientists had predicted chaos
Trump’s War on Science Continues
As sacked National Science Board members and lawmakers speak out, US research preeminence further dims on the international stage
When “Extinct” Volcanoes Reawaken
They’re filled with a lot more fury than their millennia-long slumber would suggest
What Mummies Read Before a Long Nap
Archaeologists have recovered a scrap of the Iliad in the belly of an interred Egyptian
