But the BepiColombo twin orbiters aren’t the first spacecraft to visit our system’s smallest planet. Here’s what we’ve seen already

Several space missions are searching for extraterrestrial life, which could come in the form of microbes

And it could stick around for decades

Autocracy wasn’t inevitable in early civilizations—many were more egalitarian. But when riches were there to monopolize, strongmen and inequalities emerged

The maritime disaster of 1912 wasn’t fully understood until the shipwreck was rediscovered

Such delicate textiles typically decompose within a few years

Majority voting may make us less willing to tolerate advantages for others

Part of the challenge of finding a biomarker for mental illness is the environment’s significant influence

Cooperation is a double-edged sword

And vacuuming might make things worse

Talk about getting to the bottom of things

It depends. Though water consumption by data centers pales in comparison to that of some other industries, it’s a problem in water-stressed regions. Water-saving cooling technologies could help

Sex reversal may not be an evolutionary dead end after all

Not every ant is a good samaritan

And they could shed light on our own language acquisition

People who can’t see images in their minds challenge an old philosophical standby

It takes intelligence to get things spectacularly wrong. An essay on our undoing.

In this age of AI anxiety, listen to your heart