Technology

It’s not looking good for the saola. If it still exists, it is one of the world’s rarest large mammals — a deerlike creature from the mountainous rainforests of Vietnam and Laos that’s been called “Asia’s unicorn” because of…

Brain cells named for stars are finally getting their time to shine. Three distinct studies, published May 15 in Science, show that astrocytes, once thought of as support cells, powerfully shape how brains work. These findings…

Bad news, earthlings. Computer simulations of the solar system’s future reveal a new risk facing us all: The gravitational tug of a passing star could either cause another planet to smack into Earth or else fling our planet into…

When a baby born in Philadelphia was announced as the first person to get a gene therapy designed just for him, many people hailed the achievement as a starting point to treat virtually any genetic disease. But there is a long…

A new report claims that sun eruptions are shortening the lives of satellites in Earth orbit, especially SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. According to a report by New Scientist, a study by Denny Oliveira at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre…

The earliest cities may have had plenty of parasitic, six-legged tenants.  Common bedbugs (Cimex lectularius) experienced a dramatic jump in population size around the time humans congregated in the first cities. The wee…

The oldest known fossil of a singing cicada reveals that these insects were making music during the Eocene epoch — long before humans existed. The fossil represents a new cicada species, Eoplatypleura messelensis, which lived…

Western Europeans crafted hunting weapons out of bones from whales stranded on the Atlantic shoreline between 20,000 and 14,000 years ago, researchers report May 27 in Nature Communications. Previously excavated finds at Stone…

On May 25, 2025, Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and his three crewmates entered quarantine, gearing up for a historic journey. The Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission, a joint effort by Axiom Space, NASA, the European Space Agency…

A new discovery in southern China begs the understanding of evolutionary link between birds and dinosaurs. The fossilized remains of around 72-million-year-old dinosaur embryo, which is nicknamed Baby Yingliang, gives a glimpse into the…

It’s a matter of size A January executive order by President Donald Trump designates people as female if they make the “large” reproductive cell (the egg) and male if they make the “small” one (the sperm). But the human…

Nancy Shute is editor in chief of Science News Media Group. Previously, she was an editor at NPR and US News & World Report, and a contributor to National Geographic and Scientific American. She is a past president of the…

May 24, 2025 08:33 AM IST The picture marks 1,500 sols (Martian days) for Perseverance, equivalent to 1,541 days on Earth. A latest selfie by NASA’s Perseverance rover at Mars has featured a new guest: a Martin dust devil.…

Pruney fingertips aren't swollen sponges — the wrinkles actually come from blood vessels constricting and pulling skin inward.

This month, we visit a trendy (but fictional) spa with an unusual feature: hot mud beds. You lay a plastic sheet on the mud. Then you lay your body upon the sheet. Without any direct contact between mud and body, you spend…

The sloth family tree once sported a dizzying array of branches, body sizes and lifestyles, from small and limber tree climbers to lumbering bear-sized landlubbers.  Why sloth body size was once so diverse, while today’s sloths…

Senior physics writer Emily Conover has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago. She is a two-time winner of the D.C. Science Writers’ Association Newsbrief award and a winner of the Acoustical Society of America’s…

The first successful human bladder transplant could offer hope for people with bladder problems. On May 4, 2025, Oscar Larrainzar, 41, became the first human to successfully receive a bladder transplant. The surgery was part of…

Penguins’ poop may be making Antarctica cloudier — and helping mitigate the regional impacts of climate change. Gases emitted from the birds’ guano are supplying key chemical ingredients to form the seeds of clouds — the…

I confess: If I think about skeletons, it’s around Halloween. I especially enjoy the yard displays of larger-than-life skeletons engaging in mundane activities, like walking skeleton dogs. But our own skeletons are something we…

The quantum-based magnet technique could allow scientists to spot ultralight dark matter particles.

The collision of two lightning-bolts-in-the-making spawned an exceedingly brief but extremely energetic flash of gamma rays. This first-of-its-kind observation may help explain an origin of some of the most energetic radiation…

Weather forecasting is getting cheaper and more accurate. An AI model named Aurora used machine learning to outperform current weather prediction systems, researchers report May 21 in Nature. Aurora could accurately predict…

The new framework unveiled May 20 says new COVID-19 shots should go only to those ages 65 and up or with underlying medical conditions.

Experts explain the science behind Biden's advanced prostate cancer diagnosis, including how common it is and what treatments are available.

With greater control over the quantum realm, physicists are poised to make major leaps in quantum computing, quantum gravity and more.

Senior physics writer Emily Conover has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago. She is a two-time winner of the D.C. Science Writers’ Association Newsbrief award and a winner of the Acoustical Society of America’s…

Kanzi showed apes have the capacity for language, but in recent years scientists have questioned the ethics of ape experiments.

There’s a serious case of stranger danger unfolding on an island off the coast of Panama. A gang of five juvenile capuchin monkeys living on Jicarón Island has started abducting baby howler monkeys, researchers report May 19 in…

In the next year, the number of people with brain-computer interfaces – devices that connect the brain to technology – is expected to double. These implants are already helping people with paralysis control computers and may soon let them…