Category Science

A microscopic image of a neuroblastoma tumour Simon Belcher/Alamy A cancer therapy that uses genetically engineered immune cells, called CAR T-cells, has kept a person free of a potentially fatal nerve tumour for a record-breaking 18 years. “This is, to…

Norovirus conjures a nightmarish series of gastrointestinal symptoms, and the hated infection has been rampant this winter. The so-called stomach flu—although it’s unrelated to influenza—strikes suddenly and curses its victims with one to three days of diarrhea and vomiting. Yet…

Quantum computing has enormous potential, but it faces a scalability problem. For such a machine to be useful in real terms, multiple quantum processors need to be assembled in a single location. This increases a processor’s power but also its…

The rise of quantum computers means we need new ways to keep data secure whiteMocca/Shutterstock China has announced that it will spurn US-led efforts to develop encryption algorithms that are resistant to quantum computers, instead choosing to develop its own…

Theodor Diener had a problem. It was 1967, and he and a colleague had successfully isolated the infectious agent causing potato spindle tuber disease, which devastates crops. But it wasn’t like anything they recognised. Although they called it a virus,…

Rape kits are used to collect evidence of sexual assault for testing Jaclyn Nash/National Museum of American History The Secret History of the Rape KitPagan Kennedy (Vintage Books) While writing Inventology, a book on inventions that create social change and…

Sonya Stokes, an emergency room physician in the San Francisco Bay Area, braces herself for a daily deluge of patients sick with coughs, soreness, fevers, vomiting, and other flu-like symptoms. She’s desperate for information, but the Centers for Disease Control…

This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In the summer of 2023, Vasileios Tsianos, the vice president of corporate development at Neo Performance Materials, started getting calls from government officials on both sides…

Could a private company create forecasts on its own without NOAA data? It would be difficult for one company to provide comprehensive weather data in a reliable way that is also accessible to the entire public. Some companies might be…