All Science
Heads up, maple leaf. Canada鈥檚 eyeing another national icon.In Canada, a contest for a national lichen has shone a new light on ecology at a time when many residents are finding a renewed embrace of nature.
Hypersonic missiles may be unstoppable. Is society ready?Hypersonic missiles raise ethical questions about how the military could use machine learning, as the U.S., Russia, and China develop new weapons.
Freezing point: An icy pick-me-upWater and ice are many children鈥檚 first introduction to chemical phase changes. But sometimes even familiar substances behave in unexpected ways.
66-million-year-old 鈥榳onderchicken鈥� offers lesson in resilienceA 66-million-year-old fossil could help explain why some species survived the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs.
Science says rats can be kind. Here鈥檚 why that matters.Far from merciless, rats, it seems, will go out of their way to avoid harming each other. The animal kingdom may be more empathetic than people think.
Why your next lithium battery might come from the USSeveral energy companies are focusing on the vast underground geothermal reservoir at California鈥檚 Salton Sea as a domestic source of lithium.
Coronavirus puts health officials on messaging tightropeIs it already a 鈥減andemic鈥� or not? Such questions of messaging have new importance as social networks amplify or distort science-based news.
Science NotebookKatherine Johnson: Remembering a brilliant mathematician, role modelKatherine Johnson blazed a trail into STEM for women and minorities through a three-decades long career at NASA.
First LookKatherine Johnson: NASA math whiz and pioneer for black women"Katherine Johnson's courage ... and her grace continue to inspire the world," wrote NASA's chief. She was a mathematician who calculated rocket trajectories and earth orbits. Her work for NASA partly inspired the film "Hidden Figures."
Cave diving, microbes, and slime: A love storyMost of life on Earth goes unseen. So scientists like Jennifer Macalady work to bring it to light, sometimes deep below the surface of the planet.
The ExplainerA dimming Betelgeuse has stargazers bursting. Three questions.Betelgeuse has been one of the sky鈥檚 brightest stars. But its unexpected dimming has raised speculation that it could be nearing supernova.
What do babies and warring groups have in common? Altruism.Humans have long been considered inherently selfish. But that may be changing, as researchers observe kindness in babies and among warring groups.- Why the sun鈥檚 mysteries could soon be revealedA trio of solar observatories 鈥� two space probes and one telescope 鈥� are taking unprecedented looks at our closest star.
First LookSolar Orbiter's frontier mission: capture 'symphony of the sun'Armed with an innovative heat shield, the U.S.-Europe collaboration will boldly go where no spacecraft has gone before 鈥� to photograph the sun's poles.
First LookAstronaut Christina Koch returns after setting space recordU.S. astronaut Christina Koch聽set the record for the longest stay in space by a woman,聽328 days. Her record offers new insights into the affects of weightlessness and space radiation on long spaceflights.
First LookWhat scientists hope to find in the Indian Ocean 'Midnight Zone'Scientists will dive thousands of feet into the Indian Ocean, where they expect to find new bioluminescent life 鈥� and the occasional聽plastic bag 鈥� hiding in the unexplored "Midnight Zone."聽
Behold the xenobots 鈥� part frog, part robot. But are they alive?A new class of robots, built from frog stem cells, is testing the boundaries of how we define life.
Say goodnight, Spitzer. Farewell to a groundbreaking space telescope.You鈥檝e likely heard of Hubble and Kepler. But the Spitzer was the Swiss Army knife of space telescopes.
The ExplainerCould 2020 mark a new era in US space exploration? Three questions.After a nearly decade-long hiatus, 2020 will be the year that American astronauts rocket into space from American soil once again.聽
For those about to rock: The scientist who played AC/DC for ladybugsWhere do ideas come from? For scientists like ecologist Brandon Barton, serious inquiry often starts with silly questions.
