SCIENCE
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Heliophysics Is Set to Shine in 2025
January 3, 2025 3 min read Heliophysics Is Set to Shine in 2025 The science of the sun and its effects on the solar system is a sprawling discipline that expects a very exciting 2025 By Meghan Bartels edited by Lee Billings The sun sends out a constant flow of charged particles called the solar wind, which ultimately travels past…
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Do We Live in a Special Part of the Universe?
Ever since humans started gazing at the heavens through telescopes, we have discovered, bit by bit, that in celestial terms we’re apparently not so special. Earth was not the center of the universe, it turned out. It wasn’t even the center of the solar system! The solar system, unfortunately, wasn’t the center of the universe either. In fact, there were…
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For the New Year, the FDA Is Changing What Foods Can Be Called ‘Healthy’
Until now, an orange couldn’t be called healthy, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The fruit has 70 calories, three grams of fiber and more than 100 percent of the recommended daily value for vitamin C. Yet the whole fruit can’t qualify for a “healthy” label based on existing FDA guidelines for use of the term. Water can’t do…
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Why Probability Probably Doesn’t Exist (But It’s Useful to Act Like It Does)
Life is uncertain. None of us know what is going to happen. We know little of what has happened in the past, or is happening now outside our immediate experience. Uncertainty has been called the ‘conscious awareness of ignorance’ — be it of the weather tomorrow, the next Premier League champions, the climate in 2100 or the identity of our…
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NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Attempts a Record-Breaking Christmas Eve Flyby
There are some places in the solar system no human will ever go. The surface of Venus, with its thick atmosphere and crushing pressure, is all but inaccessible. The outer worlds, such as Pluto, are too remote to presently consider for anything but robotic exploration. And the sun, our bright burning ball of hydrogen and helium, is far too hot…
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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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