SCIENCE
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What Gives Christmas Trees Their Crisp, Cozy Scent?
December 20, 2024 3 min read What Gives Christmas Trees Their Crisp, Cozy Scent? Learn which molecules are responsible for giving Christmas trees their distinct, crisp-yet-spicy scent By Meghan Bartels edited by Lauren J. Young Iuliia Bondar/Getty Images Nothing smells quite like a Christmas tree—but where does that magical woodsy-yet-cozy aroma come from? You can thank a ubiquitous category of…
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How to Make Your Christmas Tree Last
December 17, 2024 3 min read Science-Based Tips for Making Your Christmas Tree Last O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum, where’s your instruction manual? Here’s how to make the most of your Christmas tree By Meghan Bartels Elizabethsalleebauer/Getty Images Ah, December, the month when many people bring a little—or not-so-little—piece of the great outdoors inside in the form of a Christmas tree.…
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Luigi Mangione’s Alleged Ghost Gun and Other Antisurveillance Tech, Explained
Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old suspect accused of killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson on a midtown Manhattan sidewalk, allegedly took several sophisticated-sounding steps to thwart detection. Thompson was killed in a highly surveilled urban setting, but his assailant wore a mask and hood and used a pistol equipped with a silencer to suppress the noise of gunshots. When Mangione was…
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5 Nifty Things We Learned about Pet Cats and Dogs in 2024
December 11, 2024 2 min read 5 Nifty Things We Learned about Pet Cats and Dogs in 2024 Why do some Labrador retrievers overeat? Do cats and dogs dream like humans do? Is your cat actually obsessed with you? In 2024 we got answers to these and other questions about our beloved furry friends By Saima S. Iqbal Cats and…
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Wuhan Lab Sequences Reveal No Close COVID Relatives, Virologist Says
December 6, 2024 3 min read Wuhan Virologist Says Lab Has No Close Relatives to COVID Virus Shi Zhengli, the virologist at the center of COVID lab-leak theory, reveals coronavirus sequences from the Wuhan institute By Smriti Mallapaty & Nature magazine Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli has presented evidence that her lab has not worked with close relatives of SARS-CoV-2. Johannes Eisele/AFP via…
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New Pneumonia Vaccine Guidelines Could Save More People from Deadly Disease
The respiratory bugs that surge every winter, from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to whooping cough, hit us with nasty coughs, fevers and chills—and they can also create the perfect opportunity for deadly pneumonia. Often misunderstood as a single sinister ailment (one your parents have ominously warned that you’d catch if you forgot your coat), pneumonia actually describes a lung infection…
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What Caused This Seven-Mile Scar in Australia’s Outback?
December 2, 2024 4 min read What Caused This Seven-Mile Scar in Australia’s Outback Seen on Google Earth? A man scouring Google Earth found a mysterious scar in the Australian outback. And now scientists know what caused it By Matej Lipar & The Conversation US This Google Earth image shows a mysterious scar etched into Australia’s barren landscape. The following…
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‘Marine Snow’ Studies Show How the Ocean Eats Carbon
November 29, 2024 2 min read ‘Marine Snow’ Studies Show How the Ocean Eats Carbon The ocean’s digestive system is dictated by picky microbes and precise dynamics of drifting debris By Susan Cosier Carbon falls as “marine snow” through ocean layers. From the sunlit top 200 meters of the sea, plankton carcasses, excrement and molt particles constantly drift toward the…
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How Magnet Fishers Catch Underwater Garbage, Guns and Sometimes Treasure
Magnet fisher James Kane cradles a shiny, four-pound magnetic disk: a stainless-steel shell housing an alloy of iron, neodymium and boron. He hucks it into a lake in a public park in New York City, then tugs it slowly toward shore with a sturdy synthetic rope. As the powerful magnet bump bump bumps along the bottom, it kicks up a…
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Scientists Scramble to Save Climate Data from Trump—Again
CLIMATEWIRE | Eight years ago, as the Trump administration was getting ready to take office for the first time, mathematician John Baez was making his own preparations. Together with a small group of friends and colleagues, he was arranging to download large quantities of public climate data from federal websites in order to safely store them away. Then-President-elect Donald Trump…
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