Animals
A new book explores the transformative power of bird-watching
In Birding to Change the World, environmental scientist Trish O’Kane shows how birds and humans can help one another heal.
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Cover Story
STEVE and other aurora-like glows perplex scientists with their complex physics
New views of STEVE from citizen scientists keep raising questions about the atmospheric light show — but computer models may offer some answers.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Physics
What happens when lawn sprinklers suck in water? Physicists answer that quirky question
Experiments with a floating sprinkler and laser-illuminated microparticles revealed the surprisingly complex physics behind a simple question.
Notebook
Life
These snails give live birth, and it’s the babies that may do the labor
Protecting eggs in mom’s body may have given rough periwinkle snails an advantage over egg-laying cousins, letting them spread to far more coastline.
Features
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How two outsiders tackled the mystery of arithmetic progressions
Computer scientists made progress on a decades-old puzzle in a subfield of mathematics known as combinatorics.
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Anténor Firmin challenged anthropology’s racist roots 150 years ago
In The Equality of the Human Races, Haitian scholar Anténor Firmin showed that science did not support division among the races.
More Stories from the February 24, 2024 issue
- Health & Medicine
Under very rare conditions, Alzheimer’s disease may be transmitted
Alzheimer’s isn’t contagious. But contaminated growth hormone injections caused early-onset Alzheimer’s in some recipients, a new study suggests.
- Chemistry
The smallest known molecular knot is made of just 54 atoms
Chemists are still trying to figure out why this combination of gold, phosphorus, oxygen and carbon atoms resulted in a molecular knot in the first place.
- Plants
This weird fern is the first known plant that turns its dead leaves into new roots
Cyathea rojasiana tree ferns seem to thrive in Panama’s Quebrada Chorro forest by turning dead leaves into roots that seek out nutrient-rich soil.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, computers helped speed up drug discovery
In 1974, a computer program helped researchers search for promising cancer drugs. Today, AI is helping speed up drug discovery.
- Earth
Many but not all of the world’s aquifers are losing water
Many aquifers are quickly disappearing due to climate change and overuse, but some are rising because of improved resource management.
- Physics
A predicted quasicrystal is based on the ‘einstein’ tile known as the hat
The einstein tile can cover an infinite plane only with a nonrepeating pattern. A material based on it has features of both crystals and quasicrystals.
- Physics
A pivotal quantum theory holds up even in extreme electric fields
Quantum electrodynamics, which describes how charged particles and light interact, works in the strong fields around highly ionized uranium atoms.
- Planetary Science
Bacteria that can make humans sick could survive on Mars
Experiments suggest that common illness-causing microbes could not only survive on the Red Planet but also might be able to thrive.
- Ecosystems
How an invasive ant changed a lion’s dinner menu
An invasive ant is killing off ants that defend trees from elephants. With less cover, it’s harder for lions to hunt zebras, so they hunt buffalo instead.
- Life
Insects flocking to artificial lights may not know which way is up
Insects may use light to figure out where the ground is. Artificial lights send them veering off course, data from high-speed infrared cameras suggests.
- Archaeology
A four-holed piece of ivory provides a glimpse into ancient rope-making
The tool, unearthed in Central Europe, suggests that locals made devices for stringing together sturdy cords over 35,000 years ago, researchers say.
- Climate
Cold, dry snaps accompanied three plagues that struck the Roman Empire
New climate data for ancient Italy point to temperature and rainfall influences on past infectious disease outbreaks.
- Animals
A bird flu outbreak is sweeping the globe. Its long-term effects are unclear
A reporter’s recent trip to the Galápagos offered a chance to reflect on the bird flu outbreak, which has killed millions of birds and other animals.
