Over the last 100 years, research has shed light on where we come from — how a single fertilized egg manages to develop into an organism that is unique, complex and most decidedly human — and technology has helped spur the process. | Continue reading
New devices — worn as headsets and backpacks — rely on optogenetics, in which bursts of light toggle neurons, to control mouse brain activity. | Continue reading
Scientists took conspiracy theories seriously and analyzed the coronavirus to reveal its natural origins. | Continue reading
Material formed in the wake of the first atomic bomb test contains a strange material that is ordered but that is not a standard crystal. | Continue reading
Methanol spotted around a hot, young star probably originated in interstellar space, suggesting some chemistry for life may start before stars form. | Continue reading
DNA has four building blocks: A, C, T and G. But some bacteriophages swap A for Z, and scientists have figured out how and why they do it. | Continue reading
The shape of the 3.67-million-year-old hominid’s shoulder blades suggests it had a gorilla-like ability to climb trees. | Continue reading
How to downgrade Ruby with Homebrew or change Ruby version on macOS with chruby, rbenv, or rvm. From the guide, Install Ruby on Mac. | Continue reading
Honeybees, as stand-ins for surgery patients, show drug’s aftereffects as biorhythms get out sync. | Continue reading
The “xenobots” can swim, navigate tubes, move particles into piles and even heal themselves after injury, a new study reports. | Continue reading
The “xenobots” can swim, navigate tubes, move particles into piles and even heal themselves after injury, a new study reports. | Continue reading
The mRNA vaccines are about 90 percent effective at blocking coronavirus infection, which could lead to reduced transmission, real-world data suggest. | Continue reading
More vaccines still in the works are exploring a variety of approaches, including pills and electrical zaps. | Continue reading
Drugs that block a brain chemical called CGRP are helping some patients who suffer from migraine pain. | Continue reading
The next generation of materials that conduct electricity with no resistance could shrug off the need for high pressure and low temperatures. | Continue reading
This interactive visualization reveals the diversity of smashups that generate gravitational waves. | Continue reading
Researchers asked older environmental activists what they planned to do with their bodies after death. Many were unaware of “green” burial options. | Continue reading
A new laser’s chaotic light beam lets the device generate multiple number sequences at once, similar to throwing multiple dice at a time. | Continue reading
An onslaught of new technology aims to listen to — and maybe even change — your brain activity. Readers, scientists and ethicists grapple with the ethical implications of new ways to get inside the skull. | Continue reading
Evidence of early life may be harder to preserve than pseudofossils — structures that form abiotically but resemble living remnants. | Continue reading
Understanding how knots influence textile properties could lead to bespoke materials. | Continue reading
A computer analysis suggests early Homo species developed a powerful grip, giving them an evolutionary edge over some other tool-using hominids. | Continue reading
Astrochemists map phosphorus-bearing molecules in a star-forming cloud, giving clues to how this vital element may have arrived on Earth. | Continue reading
Two species of Australian monitor lizards dig nests four meters deep. Now scientists reveal that the burrows are home to far more than their creators. | Continue reading
The origins of an enigmatic type of lightning in the upper atmosphere has been traced to a 10-microsecond flash of bright blue light. | Continue reading
For years, researchers thought an infectious pathogen was behind sea star wasting disease. Instead, bacteria deplete the starfishes’ oxygen. | Continue reading
Plate tectonics explains many of Earth’s geologic wonders and natural hazards — and may hold clues to the evolution of life. | Continue reading
In part because of her gender, Tharp was the right person in the right place at the right time to make the first detailed maps of the ocean’s bottom. | Continue reading
Flying drones sent entangled particles of light to two locations a kilometer apart. | Continue reading
2020 was just the latest in a series of record-breaking years for ocean heat. | Continue reading
Bands of charcoal from fires lit long ago, found in an ice core from a New Mexico cave, correspond to five periods of drought over 800 years. | Continue reading
Stones possibly used to break mastodon bones 130,000 years ago in what is now California get fresh scrutiny. | Continue reading
By coating themselves in fresh horse manure, wild giant pandas may be seeking a chemical in the poop that inhibits a cold-sensing protein. | Continue reading
A geologic game of connect the dots reveals hints that Mount Cleveland, the Aleutians’ most active volcano, may sit on a giant undersea crater. | Continue reading
A second type of quantum computer has now performed a calculation impossible for a traditional computer. | Continue reading
The need for cold storage and booster shots could create problems for distributing coronavirus vaccines to nearly everyone in the world. | Continue reading
Both Pfizer and Moderna built their vaccines on RNA. Freezing them keeps their fragile components from breaking down. | Continue reading
The shortest duration ever measured is 247 zeptoseconds, or trillionths of a billionth of a second. | Continue reading
Plant enthusiasts go to extremes trying to save beloved species. | Continue reading
A Peruvian burial that indicates that women speared large prey as early as 9,000 years ago sheds new light on gender roles of ancient hunter-gatherers. | Continue reading
Bound and decorated llamas, found at an Inca site in southern Peru, may have been buried alive as part of events in annexed territories. | Continue reading
Detecting phosphine in Venus’ atmosphere made headlines, but reanalyses and new searches call into question the original discovery of the molecule. | Continue reading
When dropped, two types of atoms accelerate at the same rate despite their differences, much like objects in Galileo’s leaning Tower of Pisa experiment. | Continue reading
Scientists are calling for a “hands-off” approach to research to decrease the chances of spreading the coronavirus to bats in North America. | Continue reading
The diabolical ironclad beetle is an incredibly tough little creature. A peek inside its exoskeleton reveals what makes it virtually uncrushable. | Continue reading
To escape a watery death, some fire ants use build sand structures that draw the insects’ sugary, liquid food out of containers and to a safer place. | Continue reading
Glowing Venus flytraps reveal how calcium buildup in the cells of leaves acts as a short-term “memory” that helps the plants identify prey. | Continue reading
A compound of carbon, hydrogen and sulfur conducts electricity without resistance up to 15° C, but there’s a catch: It works only under high pressure. | Continue reading