All Stories
- Anthropology
Footprints offer a rare look at ancient human relatives crossing paths
The imprints put flat-footed and arched-foot walkers together at a prime spot in East Africa.
- Space
What will it take to defend the world from an asteroid?
In How to Kill an Asteroid, Robin George Andrews looks at the successes and shortcomings of planetary defense.
- Health & Medicine
Cervical cancer deaths are plummeting among young U.S. women
A new study shows a steep drop in cervical cancer deaths among the first cohort of women who were eligible for the HPV vaccine.
- Health & Medicine
Sluggish proteins may underpin aging and chronic disease
Sticky, sluggish proteins with “proteolethargy” may be a common denominator underpinning life’s ailments.
- Science & Society
This ‘hidden figure’ of entomology fought for civil rights
Margaret S. Collins, the first Black American female entomologist to earn a Ph.D., overcame sexism and racism to become a termite expert.
- Neuroscience
Like brain cells, kidney cells can form memories
Scientists found memory’s molecular machinery at work in cells outside the nervous system.
- Paleontology
China’s famously rich dinosaur fossil beds get a new origins story
Cave-ins and floods may have buried the Cretaceous creatures of the fossil Jehol Biota rather than volcanic eruptions, a new study claims.
- Climate
From electric cars to wildfires, how Trump may affect climate actions
Trump’s first term, campaign pledges and nominees point to how efforts to address climate change and environmental issues may fare.
- Health & Medicine
Dengue is classified as an urban disease. Mosquitoes don’t care
Infectious diseases are often labeled “urban” or “rural.” Applying political labels to public health misses who is at risk, experts argue.
- Health & Medicine
Refurbished heart pacemakers work like new
“Old” pacemakers may still work for years, so doctors are refurbishing used devices and donating them to patients in low- and middle-income countries.
- Archaeology
Ancient Central Americans built a massive fish-trapping system
Earthen channels directed fish into ponds that formed seasonally, providing a dietary bounty for Maya civilizations starting around 4,000 years ago.
- Climate
Satellite space junk might wreak havoc on the stratosphere
Hundreds of defunct satellites plunge toward Earth every year. Scientists are studying how the chemical stew left in their wake impacts the atmosphere.
