Science
Bug's Life
The Earth Will Feast on Dead Cicadas
Two cicada broods, XIX and XIII, are emerging in sync for the first time in 221 years. Birds, trees, and dirt are about to get the banquet of a lifetime.
Celia Ford
The Real Reason Some Abortion Pill Patients Go to the ER
The abortion pill mifepristone went in front of the US Supreme Court on Tuesday. Antiabortionists say an increase in emergency room visits shows it’s unsafe. Medical experts disagree.
Emily Mullin
Are You Noise Sensitive? Here's How to Tell
Every person has a different idea of what makes noise “loud,” but there are some things we all can do to turn the volume down a little.
Amy Paturel
A Gene-Edited Pig Kidney Was Just Transplanted Into a Person for the First Time
A 62-year-old Massachusetts man with failing kidneys is the first living patient to receive a genetically altered kidney from a pig.
Emily Mullin
There Are Already More Measles Cases in the US This Year Than All of 2023
The CDC is begging Americans to get vaccinated against measles as cases continue to rise.
Beth Mole, Ars Technica
A Startup Will Try to Mine Helium-3 on the Moon
The Earth is in short supply of helium-3. The lunar surface may hold the answer.
Eric Berger, Ars Technica
The 4 Big Questions the Pentagon’s New UFO Report Fails to Answer
The Pentagon says it’s not hiding aliens, but it stops notably short of saying what it is hiding. Here are the key questions that remain unanswered—some answers could be weirder than UFOs.
Garrett M. Graff
Odysseus Marks the First US Moon Landing in More Than 50 Years
A Houston-based company called Intuitive Machines made lunar history this week.
Eric Berger, Ars Technica
NASA’s New PACE Observatory Searches for Clues to Humanity’s Future
They may be tiny, but phytoplankton and aerosols power pivotal Earth systems. Scientists are about to learn a whole lot more about them at a critical time.
Matt Simon
Europe Is Struggling to Coexist With Wild Bears
A fatal bear attack in Slovakia reignited accusations that conservationists are protecting the animals at the expense of human safety. Experts argue it's a people problem, not a bear problem.
Tristan Kennedy
The US Buried Nuclear Waste Abroad. Climate Change Could Unearth It
A new report says melting ice sheets and rising seas could disturb waste from US nuclear projects in Greenland and the Marshall Islands.
Anita Hofschneider
Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat
Extreme heat waves are already here, and they are killing tens of thousands of people. Blasting through 2 degrees Celsius of warming means they’ll happen many times more frequently.
Stephen Armstrong
A Discarded Plan to Build Underwater Cities Will Give Coral Reefs New Life
A 1970s plan to grow underwater limestone objects has been repurposed as a way of regenerating the seabed, reestablishing corals, and stopping coastal erosion.
Stephen Armstrong
The Best Umbrellas to Help You Ride Out the Rain
These picks will protect you from showers, withstand the wind, and hold up for the long haul.
Julian Chokkattu
Enjoy Your Favorite Wine Before Climate Change Destroys It
Extreme heat and droughts are making it harder to grow grapes in many traditional regions. Here’s how scientists are helping the industry adapt.
Matt Simon
The US Is About to Drown in a Sea of Kittens
Cats are most fertile during the summer months, but in recent years “kitten season” has been starting earlier and lasting longer. The trend is bad news for shelters and wildlife alike.
Sachi Mulkey
The World’s E-Waste Has Reached a Crisis Point
A new UN report finds that humanity is generating 137 billion pounds of TVs, smartphones, and other e-waste a year—and recycling less than a quarter of it.
Matt Simon
The Feds Are Trying to Get Plants to Mine Metal Through Their Roots
Some species can absorb extreme amounts of nickel from soils. Such “phytomining” could help provide batteries essential for the renewable revolution.
Matt Simon
Stumped by Heat Pumps?
Our in-house physics whiz explains how a heat pump can warm your home without burning fossil fuels.
Rhett Allain
For Bitcoin Mines in Texas, the Honeymoon Is Over
The energy demands of bitcoin mining have sparked controversy in a state that once welcomed those companies with open arms.
Joel Khalili
What Would Happen if Every American Got a Heat Pump
Getting these climate superheroes into more US homes would massively cut emissions, and it would be cost-effective. Here’s how the revolution would play out.
Matt Simon
Large Language Models’ Emergent Abilities Are a Mirage
A new study suggests that sudden jumps in LLMs’ abilities are neither surprising nor unpredictable, but are actually the consequence of how we measure ability in AI.
Stephen Ornes
Never-Repeating Patterns of Tiles Can Safeguard Quantum Information
Two researchers have proved that Penrose tilings, famous patterns that never repeat, are mathematically equivalent to a kind of quantum error correction.
Ben Brubaker
You Can Count on Pi
On Pi Day we answer the burning question: Is there any world in which pi does not go on forever?
Rhett Allain
There’s a New Theory About Where Dark Matter Is Hiding
An idea derived from string theory suggests that dark matter is hidden in an as-yet-unseen extra dimension. Scientists are racing to test the theory to see if it holds up.
Steve Nadis
Watch Neuralink’s First Human Subject Demonstrate His Brain-Computer Interface
In a livestream on X, the paralyzed 29-year-old man used his Neuralink brain implant to control a computer.
Emily Mullin
A Pill That Kills Ticks Is a Promising New Weapon Against Lyme Disease
Your pets can already eat a chewable tablet for tick prevention. Now, a pill that paralyzes and kills ticks has shown positive results in a small human trial.
Emily Mullin
A New Headset Aims to Treat Alzheimer’s With Light and Sound
An experimental device developed by Cognito Therapeutics seeks to slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients using light and sound.
Emily Mullin
Scientists Are Inching Closer to Bringing Back the Woolly Mammoth
De-extinction startup Colossal Biosciences claims it has found a way to reprogram elephant cells, a technical breakthrough that could lead to the return of the long-lost mammals.
Matt Reynolds
Meet the Next Generation of Doctors—and Their Surgical Robots
Don't worry, your next surgeon will definitely be a human. But just as medical students are training to use a scalpel, they're also training to use robots designed to make surgeries easier.
Neha Mukherjee
AI Is Building Highly Effective Antibodies That Humans Can’t Even Imagine
Robots, computers, and algorithms are hunting for potential new therapies in ways humans can’t—by processing huge volumes of data and building previously unimagined molecules.
Amit Katwala
This Artificial Muscle Moves Stuff on Its Own
Actuators inspired by cucumber plants could make robots move more naturally in response to their environments, or be used for devices in inhospitable places.
Max G. Levy
Get Ready for 3D-Printed Organs and a Knife That ‘Smells’ Tumors
Hospitals are evolving at warp speed, and autonomous surgical robots are just the beginning.
João Medeiros
Why You Hear Voices in Your White Noise Machine
If you've ever heard music, voices, or other sounds while trying to sleep with a white noise machine running, you're not losing your mind. Here's what's going on.
Jennifer Billock
So You Want to Rewire Brains
When everyone's hooking their brains up to computers, we'll need surgeons to install the hardware.
Caitlin Kelly
They Had PTSD. A Psychedelic Called Ibogaine Helped Them Get Better
Ibogaine, a plant-based psychoactive drug, drastically reduced symptoms of depression and PTSD in veterans with traumatic brain injuries.
Emily Mullin
It's Time to Log Off
There’s a devastating amount of heavy news these days. Psychology experts say you need to know your limits—and when to put down the phone.
Thor Benson