Category Science

Twenty years ago today a tiny neutron star reached across the Milky Way to land a blow on Earth, ringing our planet like a bell. Despite being half the galaxy away, an explosion on that dead star’s surface was able…

December 27, 2024 5 min read How to Tactfully Ask Your Child’s Friend’s Parents if They Have Guns at Home A gun safety check of where your child is going for a playdate or sleepover may save lives By Sara…

“Entry number 123!” The resonant words of Larry Mellinger, a senior attorney at the U.S. Department of the Interior, were followed by murmurs from the assembled crowd. An official from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) moved slowly across…

Courtesy of Rhett Allain But what about the colors from a video projector? It essentially does the same thing. However, instead of a bunch of tiny RGB lights, it projects RGB colors to different locations on the screen. Projecting the…

Michael Hambrey and Jürg Alean A giant, impossible icicle. Starkly exposed mountain slopes. Billion-year-old rocks behind a lone iceberg. And the view from within a glacial tunnel. These four beautiful and moving images come from a new book, Our Frozen…

The weather outside may be frightful but the new books inside are delighful Lechatnoir/Getty Images An Increasingly divisive politics. Media technologies that reinforce and radicalise every fleeting opinion. An absolute tsunami of conspiracy theories. Out of the noise and anxiety…

Public health is under pressure. Across health care systems around the world, funding is declining, exhausted professionals are leaving the field, and in the US state legislatures are pulling back needed legal authorities. At the same time, outbreaks of diseases…

A humpback whale breaching Zack Metcalfe Human musicians must practise for thousands of hours to perfect their performance skills, and the same may be true for humpback whales. It is widely believed that male humpbacks (Megaptera novaeangliae) sing to attract…

Rubin Observatory’s commissioning camera (ComCam) Rubin Observatory Stockebrand Sometime in May or June, as the southern hemisphere winter sets in beneath the skies of the Chilean Atacama desert, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will open its dome and the largest…

Happy now? Assuming you are reading this issue promptly, it’s the post-Christmas lull: the weird interregnum between Christmas and the New Year when nobody is quite sure what to do with themselves (unless they are keen shoppers, in which case…