Modern industry has made great strides in turning trash into tomorrow’s new products, but the process is still a long way from perfect. New technologies can help. Plus, updates on chemical recycling, design for recycling and dirty recycling. | Continue reading
Medications can control HIV, but not eliminate it. Scientists hope to one day vanquish it completely. | Continue reading
Funerals, burials and other ways of communally commemorating those who have died have always been part of human history. The need for social distancing has upended these psychologically important rituals and fostered creative alternatives. | Continue reading
The controversial technology of reflecting sunlight away from the planet could help blunt the worst impacts of climate change | Continue reading
After centuries of misunderstanding, research has finally tied the speech disorder to certain genes and brain alterations — and new treatments may be on the horizon | Continue reading
Machine learning has found uses in fields as diverse as particle physics and radiology, and its influence is growing. But so is the understanding of its limits. | Continue reading
Scientists are working at breakneck speed to develop inexpensive tools that take only minutes to tell if someone is infected — a feat that could pave the way for a safer return to normalcy | Continue reading
A crunchy brown leaf may seem like an ending. But the food webs it supplies can be far more expansive than the ones it nourished when it was young, green and in its prime. | Continue reading
Studies of birds, fish and ants reveal the hidden ways groups coordinate movement, which might influence engineers designing drone armadas and efficient information flow | Continue reading
Tidally locked worlds are places of extremes. On one side it’s an endless day, the other a perpetual night. Yet scientists speculate that some may harbor conditions that could support life. | Continue reading
Bats cope with myriad viruses, including the one causing Covid-19, with few ill effects. Scientists are probing their immune systems to fathom how they do it. The answers might help infected people, too. | Continue reading
Psychologists have yet to find a way to diminish hidden prejudice, but they do have strategies for thwarting discrimination | Continue reading
Glaciologists dream of a cold-storage vault in Antarctica to preserve key samples of the paleoclimate | Continue reading
From mask wearing to physical distancing, individuals wield a lot of power in how the coronavirus outbreak plays out. Behavioral experts reveal what might be prompting people to act — or not. | Continue reading
No one knows exactly how the nocturnal hunters manage their whisper-soft flight, yet it is inspiring the design of quieter airplanes, fans and wind turbines | Continue reading
It began with an email from Wuhan, a Maine laboratory and mouse sperm from Iowa. Now that lab is on the verge of supplying a much-needed animal for SARS-CoV-2 research. | Continue reading
Reports of patients with neurological symptoms have emerged during the pandemic. Scientists don’t yet know whether these are a direct effect of the virus or part of the body’s response to infection. | Continue reading
Dozens of times over the eons, rove beetles have made complex, independent adaptations to live inside the nests of ants — the phenomenon of convergent evolution. Biologists want to know if this shows patterns at work in natural selection. | Continue reading
Rapid sequencing of viral genomes can help public health officials figure out the origins, spread and nature of quickly moving epidemics | Continue reading
Social media posts and online searches may offer vital clues about the spread of influenza — and now Covid-19. But they also risk errors and threaten privacy. | Continue reading
No one knows exactly how the nocturnal hunters manage their whisper-soft flight, yet it is inspiring the design of quieter airplanes, fans and wind turbines | Continue reading
Keeping on top of manipulated videos and images is no easy feat. Scientists trace the roots of their proliferation, dig up new techniques to counter digital forgeries and warn of the growing dangers ahead. | Continue reading
A longer list of Earth-like planets, eavesdropping on radio waves and looking for laser light shows: All raise the chances of detecting E.T. | Continue reading
Interactions in physical spaces, whether around the watercooler or at the neighborhood bar, are crucial to forming social ties | Continue reading
Robot researcher Mark Yim offers a look inside the promising field of modular reconfigurable robotics — bots that can shift form to tackle an array of tasks | Continue reading
FIVE BIG QUESTIONS: Embryos use a ruler, of sorts, so they can create the right structures at the right spots from head to tail. | Continue reading
How do trees find their sense of direction as they grow? Researchers are getting to the root — and the branches — of how the grandest of plants develop. | Continue reading
Certain salamanders can regrow lost body parts. How do they do it? And could people someday do the same? | Continue reading
Lungs, blood vessels, kidneys and more: Our bodies are full of branching pipes. Their development follows a handful of basic principles. | Continue reading
For decades, genetics and biochemistry have formed the bedrock of developmental biology. But it turns out that physical forces — the way cells push, pull and squeeze each other — play a huge role, too. | Continue reading
It comes in many types that each require specialized treatment. Scientists are starting to learn how to diagnose the different varieties. | Continue reading
“N of 1” studies aim to answer medical questions one person at a time | Continue reading
The author of This Is Your Brain on Music talks about the very human ways the mind and body keep the beat. | Continue reading
As researchers learn more about how exercise fights chronic ills like heart disease and diabetes, doctors may soon be able to treat physical activity as the powerful medicine it is | Continue reading
Medicines and other small molecules may play a role in fixing rhythms gone awry | Continue reading