Category Science

December 17, 2024 3 min read It’s Never Been a Better Time to Look Up Astronomy is a bright spot amid turbulence on Earth By The Editors A JWST photograph shows the NGC 602 star cluster in the Small Magellanic…

Editors of the environmental chemistry journal Chemosphere have posted an eye-catching correction to a study reporting toxic flame retardants from electronics wind up in some household products made of black plastic, including kitchen utensils. The study sparked a flurry of…

At 4:30 on a chilly morning in Australia, headlights burned through a dark forest in central Woodford, a small rural town 50 miles north of Brisbane, Queensland. Hundreds of flying foxes—magnificent fruit-eating bats with big eyes, fluffy coats, and a…

In 2025, AI and climate change, two of the biggest societal disruptors we’re facing, will collide. The summer of 2024 broke the record for Earth’s hottest day since data collection began, sparking widespread media coverage and public debate. This also…

French mathematician Édouard Lucas was born in Amiens in 1842 and died in Paris 49 years later. He wrote the four-volume work Recréations Mathématiques, which became a classic of recreational mathematics. In 1883, under the pseudonym “N. Claus de Siam”…

December 17, 2024 3 min read January 2025: Science History from 50, 100 and 150 Years Ago The J particle; a nitroglycerin engine By Mark Fischetti 1925, Exercise in Motion: “Years before the motion picture was invented, Mr. Eadweard Muybridge,…

December 17, 2024 3 min read Hear How Baby Humpback Whales Burp and Bark to Beg for Food The burps, barks and snorts humpback whales make when asking their mother for milk are the first recorded instances of begginglike behavior…

Robert Montgomery with a gene-edited pig kidney in the operating room during a xenotransplantation Joe Carrotta/NYU Langone Health On 16 March, Richard Slayman became the first living person to receive a genetically modified pig kidney. Less than one month later,…

December 17, 2024 2 min read Book Review: In a Drowning New York City, Can All of Natural History Be Saved? In the often-gloomy genre of climate fiction, a new novel hits a high-water mark for its empathy By Alan…

In June 1972, the Royal Society of Medicine in London hosted a symposium called “Man in His Place”. It featured an eclectic group of speakers, including Jacob Bronowski, whose acclaimed 13-part BBC television series, The Ascent of Man, would air…