Technology

What the island nation of Cape Verde cherishes as its own distinctive kind of date palm is getting an ancestry reveal. The Cape Verde date palm (Phoenix atlantica), native to the island nation it’s nicknamed for, is one of…

Everything Is TuberculosisJohn GreenCrash Course Books, $28 A few years ago, renowned author John Green met a boy named Henry at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. Henry was small and, at first glance, looked about 9…

In this bonus episode of The Deep End, listen to an interview with Jon Nelson. He’ll share how he’s doing these days, now that his depression is gone. You’ll hear about the work still ahead of him, which may be lifelong. And…

Taylor Swift may not be the first person who comes to mind when you think about climate change. But more than once, the singer has found herself in the middle of a media storm over her carbon di­oxide emissions. Swift regularly…

Silicon powers more than electronics: In tomato plants, it fuels a complex defense system that could help farmers use fewer pesticides. Tomato plants on four continents are currently under attack from the South American tomato…

In the United States, the number of deaths that didn’t have to happen has risen over time. From 2009 to 2019, the average rate of avoidable deaths rose by 33 per 100,000 people across the country, researchers report March…

A vaccine kept patients free of pancreatic cancer for years, yet new reports say the NIH is advising against mentioning mRNA tech in grants.

One man’s trash is a common coot’s treasure, at least when it comes to plastic. In Amsterdam, the birds have been constructing nests out of plastic food wrappers, masks and other waste for at least 30 years, researchers report…

Memory LaneCiara Greene and Gillian MurphyPrinceton Univ., $29.95 There are countless metaphors for memory. It’s a leaky bucket, a steel trap, a file cabinet, words written in sand. But one of the most evocative — and…

Great hammerhead sharks are known for their long migrations, but scientists have now discovered that some individuals in the Bahamas instead spend all year snacking without leaving their plentiful and protected home waters. Why…

A baby’s early life has a lot of milestones: first giggle, first tooth, first step. A brain scanning study adds to the list: first memory. Infants can form memories, and they use a memory structure in the brain called the…

The seals’ ability to detect the amount of oxygen in their blood may help them make diving decisions and avoid drowning.

The seals’ ability to detect the amount of oxygen in their blood may help them make diving decisions and avoid drowning.

Images of California’s wildfires this winter speak for themselves about the fires’ devastating effects. But those pictures don’t tell the whole story. Together with soil emissions, the fires are driving an increase in ground-level…

The foul stench of penguin poop sets Antarctic krill on edge. In lab experiments, the mere scent of penguin droppings — or guano — sent krill scrambling for escape, researchers report March 20 in Frontiers in Marine Science.…

Change is in the air. New data strengthen a hint that dark energy, long thought to be constant force in the universe, might change over time.Dark energy explains the observation that the universe’s expansion rate is accelerating.…

Salto the jumping robot can take a flying leap and land on a narrow pipe — just like a squirrel soaring from branch to branch.

When it comes to speech, parrots have the gift of gab. And the way the brains of small parrots known as budgerigars bestow this gift is remarkably similar to human speech, researchers report March 19 in Nature.  So far,…

The nearest single star to the sun, Barnard’s star, has a brood of planets all its own. The red dwarf star, about six light-years from Earth, hosts four close-in planets each about two to three times the mass of Mars, astronomers…

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have begun a 45-day rehabilitation program,e to help them adapt to Earth's gravity after spending nine months in space. The duo returned early Wednesday (Indian time) aboard SpaceX's Crew-9…

Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore’s extended stay in the International Space Station will add to what we know about how space affects health.

The clearest pictures yet of the newborn cosmos strengthen the prevailing model of the universe but deepen a mystery about its expansion rate. Measurements of this rate, known as the Hubble constant, have produced conflicting…

Some of Sydney’s koalas are facing an uncompromising dilemma. The koalas living in one corner of Australia’s largest city are perilously inbred, researchers report February 26 in Conservation Genetics. But the solution —…

Two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, finally departed the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday after spending nine months in orbit. They, along with two other crew members, undocked from the ISS aboard SpaceX’s…

What was supposed to be around a week's stay stretched to become a 9-month sojourn in the space. Finally, Indian-descent American astronaut Sunita Williams and her fellow NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore are scheduled to return to Earth, ending…

Scaly sailors may have made a record-setting oceanic voyage. Tens of millions of years ago, iguanas in North America floated across the Pacific Ocean. Clinging to vegetation washed into the sea, they traveled one-fifth of the way…

In the sixth episode of The Deep End, we’ll look to the future for Jon and his family and for DBS research. The research is pushing ahead, with a clinical trial of DBS for treatment-resistant depression that’s just begun. The…

The Crew-10 mission, jointly launched by NASA and SpaceX, is heading to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the regular crew rotation and will bring back stranded US astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore. The…

Crew-10 astronauts will arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) on March 15 at 11.30 pm ET (9am IST on March 16) for a six-month mission, replacing NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore, along with Nick Hague…

About 10 minutes with a therapy dog soothed kids who felt anxious about being emergency room patients. A clinical trial found that after spending time with a dog, young patients reported a significantly larger decrease in…