Category Science

The urge to scratch an itch may have evolved for a reason, but we have struggled to pinpoint why Cavan Images/Alamy Forget what your parents told you, scratching an itch may be good for you, by boosting your body’s defence…

While researching Starbound, my new book on the realities of interstellar travel, I was often surprised by the bizarre, over-the-top spacecraft designs that scientists have proposed in well-regarded academic journals. The best-known of these is Project Orion (1957-1965), whose central…

Nuke the climate We all know that climate change is dangerous, which means it can be tempting to take drastic measures to tackle it. Such as building a nuclear bomb orders of magnitude bigger than any to date and setting…

January 30, 2025 2 min read Watch a Frog Walk on Water with High-Speed Belly Flops Tiny frogs seem to skim the water’s surface, but high-speed video reveals their secret By Rohini Subrahmanyam edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Graduate researcher…

Assasinations in ancient Rome, miscarriages in pregnant horses in Australia, sudden onset of arthritis in rubber tappers in Brazil: Are you ready for the common thread among these incidents? It’s venomous caterpillars. And many of these larvae of the insect…

Investigators are scrambling to figure out why a military helicopter and a passenger airplane collided and plunged into the Potomac River in Washington DC late Wednesday, the first major US air crash in 16 years. From the little that’s known,…

A high-stakes face-off is brewing in the arid deserts of northern Chile, between astronomers building the world’s largest optical telescope and a proposed green energy megaproject from an international corporation that threatens those plans. For decades, astronomers have prized Chile’s…

What does this monkey make of the image in the car mirror? peters99/Getty Images The Moral CircleJeff Sebo (W. W. Norton US: on sale; UK: March) Should chimpanzees have rights? What about elephants? Or ants? Or microorganisms? And how about artificial…

Today, clothes are a means of self‑expression and group identity – and we wouldn’t go out without them Martin Parr/Magnum Photos Venus figurines are most famous for their sexual features. These often-voluptuous carvings of female forms, made between around 30,000 and 20,000 years ago,…

January 29, 2025 4 min read Which Foods Are the Most Ultraprocessed? New System Ranks Them Scientists have created a ranking of grocery store items based on their degree of processing By Lori Youmshajekian edited by Tanya Lewis Most grocery…