Tag Archives: science

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Our sun is the best-observed star in the entire universe. We see its light every day. For centuries, scientists have tracked the dark spots dappling its radiant face, while in recent decades, telescopes in space and on Earth have scrutinized …

This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. When Chelsea Wood was a child, she would often collect periwinkle snails on the shores of Long Island. “I used to pluck them off the rocks and put them in buckets and keep them as pets …

Three rapid bursts of charged particles that erupted toward Earth from the sun’s burning-hot outer atmosphere on Wednesday could lead to stunning auroras across a wide swath of the US and a colorful hue as far south as Florida to start the weekend. Traveling at more than 1.5 million miles …

Are you experiencing unexplained memory lapses or brain fog? Ever considered that you may have a parasite in your brain? That apparently was the startling diagnosis received by independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 14 years ago from one of the top neurologists in the US, according to a …

Elon Musk’s startup Neuralink revealed that it experienced a problem with its brain implant after the device was installed in its initial participant, 29-year-old quadriplegic Noland Arbaugh. After the January 28 procedure, Musk was quick to announce on X that Arbaugh was “recovering well” and that “initial results show promising …

The humble tree has long protected humans from sickness and even death—and in the modern city, it’s still doing so. As global temperatures rise, so too does the “urban heat island effect”—the tendency for cities to absorb and hold on to the sun’s energy, which is a growing public-health crisis …

Alabama has become the second US state to ban the sale of cultivated meat. The bill, signed into law by Governor Kay Ivey on May 7, will make it illegal for anyone to manufacture, sell, or distribute cultivated meat in Alabama. Anyone found guilty of violating the law will have …

Google spent much of the past year hustling to build its Gemini chatbot to counter ChatGPT, pitching it as a multifunctional AI assistant that can help with work tasks or the digital chores of personal life. More quietly, the company has been working to enhance a more specialized artificial intelligence …

The White House has issued new rules aimed at companies that manufacture synthetic DNA after years of warnings that a pathogen made with mail-order genetic material could accidentally or intentionally spark the next pandemic. The rules, released on April 29, are the result of an executive order signed by President …

If billionaires actually cared about saving the planet, they’d pool their vast wealth and buy everyone a heat pump. Instead of burning planet-warming fossil fuels, these appliances extract warmth from even freezing outdoor air and transfer it into a building, thanks to neat tricks of physics. In the summer, they …