Category Science

Is this sparkling water, in the spirit of Dry January – or something harder? Brent Hofacker/Alamy Dry January, the challenge of going without alcohol for a month, is proving to be more popular than ever as millions sign up. Alcohol…

Genetically engineered male fruit flies can transmit poison to females during mating Abdul Latif/Alamy Insects that spread disease and damage crops could be controlled by inserting poisons from spider and sea anemone venom into males’ reproductive systems, killing females they…

January 7, 2025 4 min read Frigid Temperatures Are Way below Normal This Week, but ‘Normal’ Is Getting Warmer Blasts of Arctic air have brought frigid temperatures that are much colder than normal to parts of the U.S., but that…

A redox flow battery at a power plant in Japan. A new process could replace rare metals in these batteries with an industrial byproduct Alessandro Gandolfi/Panos Pictures An industrial waste product has been converted into a component for batteries that…

January 7, 2025 3 min read What Does First U.S Bird Flu Death Tell Experts about Disease Severity? Louisiana has reported the first U.S. fatality from avian influenza. Most of the country’s human cases have been mild By Tanya Lewis…

Fermat’s last theorem remained unsolved for hundreds of years Alessandro Gandolfi/Panos Pictures The following is an extract from our Lost in Space-Time newsletter. Each month, we hand over the keyboard to a physicist or mathematician to tell you about fascinating…

January 7, 2025 2 min read More People Are Dying in Cold Weather, Especially Older Adults Rising temperatures might be altering the atmosphere in ways that cause more extreme winter weather, scientists say By Chelsea Harvey & E&E News An…

Nuzzo says it’s very possible that the Louisiana patient’s preexisting health conditions contributed to the severity of their illness, but also points to the case of a teenager in Canada who was hospitalized with bird flu in November. The 13-year-old…

Human metapneumovirus (hMPV) has probably been infecting people for centuries ROGER HARRIS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Alarmist headlines that warn of China once again being overwhelmed by a mysterious new virus have dominated in the past few days. But the virus reported…

Computer science seemingly rides a curve of unstoppable progress. Mere decades took us from vacuum tubes to microchips, dial-up to high-speed Internet and Office Assistant Clippy to ChatGPT. Yet thousands of everyday problems across science and industry remain just as…