All Stories
- Math
Scientists Say: Fractal
There’s no end in sight for these infinitely complex geometric wonders.
- Space
Sci-fi inspired spacesuit recycles pee into drinking water
A spacesuit that collects and filters urine could prove a boon to future remote workers — even on Earth. Like the idea? Thank Dune.
- Health & Medicine
A little-known gene may explain why some people never get COVID-19
A quick immune response and high activity of this gene in the nose may help some people avoid getting the viral infection.
- Tech
Lasers help put the cork on spilled oil
Treating cork with lasers made the material able to quickly sponge up oil while repelling water, scientists in China and Israel found.
- Humans
Experiment: Why does the moon look larger on the horizon?
In this experiment, let’s investigate Emmert’s law, which may explain the full moon optical illusion.
- Animals
Freeze-drying turned a woolly mammoth’s DNA into ‘chromoglass’
The 3-D structure of this now-glassy DNA revealed similarities — and differences — between woolly mammoths and elephants.
- Materials Science
Scientists Say: Goldene
Making this metallic, two-dimensional (2-D) material is difficult — but super-thin sheets of gold could have uses in electronics and chemistry.
- Animals
Balmy ‘saunas’ help frogs fend off a deadly fungus
Hanging out in small sun-warmed hideaways could help some frogs resist deadly chytrid fungus, a new study finds.
- Fossils
Stunning trilobite fossils include never-before-seen soft tissues
Well-preserved fossils from Morocco help reveal the weird way trilobites ate and perhaps why these iconic animals went extinct.
- Space
Astronomers caught a supermassive black hole turning on for the first time
The black hole at the center of a not-too-distant galaxy switched from being dim and quiet to bright and active.
- Humans
How much more can Olympic speed records fall?
The human body can go faster than current world records on land and in water. But to reach full potential, our technique must be perfect.
- Science & Society
Scientists Say: Thought experiment
Thinking through imaginary, sometimes absurd, scenarios can catalyze new ways of thinking.
