NASA has confirmed its Dragonfly rotorcraft mission to Saturn’s organic-rich moon Titan. The decision allows the mission to progress to completion of final design, followed by the construction and tes
I’ve been hearing and reading a lot about AI agents lately. Ezra Klein has been discussing them all month on his podcast, in a pretty excellent interview series. WIRED’s Will Knight wrote a newsletter
For two years, Erica Walker routinely wore ear plugs to dampen the sound of stomping footsteps penetrating her basement apartment ceiling. Still, the noise from her upstairs neighbors, undetected by s
When American viewers flipped open the July 2, 1966, edition of TV Guide, they were treated to a bombshell story. This was the first installment of a two-part series on “the most taboo topic in TV,” t
“Being ill is like a full-time job,” said Andrew E. Kaufman, a 60-year-old author. Kaufman lives with myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular disease, as well as other chronic conditions, and his self-care
If one day scientists discover evidence of extraterrestrial life, how will they tell the world? How certain will they be of their discovery, and how will the public know what sense to make of it? Will
There is more than one way to raise a house. Many of the mobile homes, Creole cottages, and other dwellings that have been flagged for flood risk along Louisiana’s low-lying coastline can be separated
Charles Darwin found inspiration for his theory of evolution in birds’ beaks, giant tortoise shells—and language. “The survival or preservation of certain favored words in the struggle for existence i
Losing yourself in a book, film or show provides a useful mirror for character – one that is hard to access in real life I’ve never been good at anger management. When I was a teenager, I had a French
This story was originally published by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. When Maggie Reddy was growing up on the eastern coast of
Photograph by Alana Celii 04.15.2024 WORDS BY KATIE MYERS A trip to the solar eclipse’s path of totality exposed unsettling tensions between divinity and commodity in America’s heartland. In the hours
Data from the Census of Agriculture shows that in the past two decades, Ostrich numbers have dropped by 83%. Courtesy of Craig J. Barber Old McDonald had a farm, but he probably did not have any llama
Let’s assume, for a moment, that the universe is teeming with life. In that case, the obvious question is: Where is everyone? In my introductory astronomy class, “From Black Holes to Undiscovered Worl
An excerpt from renowned neuropsychologist Nicholas Humphrey’s book “Sentience: The Invention of Consciousness.” What do mammals and birds have going for them that other creatures don't? Photo: Ekater
In a pastoral scene apparently unchanged for centuries, Holstein cows calmly graze the electric green fields of Peter Hynes’s farm in County Cork, Ireland. But thanks to intensive breeding and technol
On an early spring day in 1959, Edward Hunter testified before a US Senate subcommittee investigating “the effect of Red China Communes on the United States.” It was the kind of opportunity he relishe
The face of autism was once predominantly white. No longer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last year that the prevalence of autism across all racial and ethnic groups is reach
I haven’t been well since my birth day. The very next day I woke up with elevated heart rate again – I am more aware of this because I use a bunch of health monitoring tools. Without them I may not kn
Seeing cars with no human inside move through San Francisco’s streets is eerie enough as a pedestrian, but when I’m on my bicycle I often find myself riding alongside them, and from that vantage poin
One of the challenges of moving away from the woods is helping your city friends understand where you come from. For years since leaving my tiny hometown in the upper tier of Pennsylvania, I’ve experi
Sunday 22 July 1888 was a glorious day in Copenhagen, warm and sunny. The city was celebrating an outdoor exhibition of the latest architectural ideas, thousands of people had filled the narrow cobble
viruses Viruses Finally Reveal Their Complex Social Life April 11, 2024 New research has uncovered a social world of viruses full of cheating, cooperation and other intrigues, suggesting that viruses
Burn Book: A Tech Love Story by Kara Swisher. Simon & Schuster, 320 pages. 2024. Silicon Valley was supposed to be “different,” or so veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher wanted to believe. Facebook w
What it all means I wrote a feature article in late January on Ingenuity's contributions to spaceflight. To summarize many words with a few: Ingenuity has forever changed how humans think about explor
London had a problem. In 2016, more than 2 million of the city’s residents—roughly a quarter of its population—lived in areas with illegal levels of air pollution; areas that also contained nearly 500
Guest Essay Many Patients Don’t Survive End-Stage Poverty April 11, 2024, 5:02 a.m. ET Credit...Miki Lowe By Dr. Ryan is an associate physician at the University of California, San Francisco, departme
For most dogs in the study, an EEG reading similar to the human N400 appeared between 200 and 600 milliseconds after they saw the object. The mismatch effect was stronger the more they were familiar w
Certifying for crew The test flight is a final step before NASA formally approves Starliner for regular six-month crew rotation flights to the space station, each carrying four astronauts. SpaceX, NAS
That’s no endosymbiont The algae Braarudosphaera bigelowii seemed like it might be an interesting case. It clearly has an endosymbiotic cyanobacteria living in its cells, and there were indications th
It’s sometimes fun to weave a tale of legend, history, imagination, and current events into a read that otherwise might be mundane or mysterious. To perk up the fancy occasionally the use of historic
Ghost Army members John Christman, of Leesburg, N.J., second from left standing, Seymour Nussenbaum, of Monroe Township, N.J, in wheelchair at left, and Bernard Bluestein, of Hoffman Estates, Ill., in
To communicate without words, humans use a host of gestures—whether a wave to wish someone goodbye, a thumbs-up to indicate approval or “flipping the bird” to suggest something far less polite. While
Explore When he can spare the time, Jan Mees is an exorcist of scientific ghosts. A marine biologist, Mees’s full-time job is directing the Flanders Marine Institute in Ostend, Belgium, but his side p
In July 1917, Howard Phillips Lovecraft of Providence, Rhode Island wrote a short story called ‘Dagon’. ‘If you don’t care for this,’ he wrote to one editor, ‘you won’t care for anything of mine.’ In
Literary Hub Craft and Criticism Literary Criticism Craft and Advice In Conversation On Translation Fiction and Poetry Short Story From the Novel Poem News and Culture History Science Politics Biograp
March 25, 2024 The Trans Rights Readathon is going on right now. Roughly a thousand people are reading trans stories and celebrating trans narratives, while raising money for trans causes. I highly en
Sea turtles were already navigating the oceans when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. But these ancient creatures face an uncertain future. All seven sea turtle species are currently endangered or threatene
[tw warning: suicide ideation] Yesterday I had another episode where I spent hours crying. This actually feels embarrassing to write, but intellectually I think it is society that conditions us to thi
I wrote this time last year that I felt like I was coping better than the year before. This year I don’t feel like I have made much progress, and perhaps I feel like I have regressed – possibly a tren
They tell you that injustice is part of some grand plan. And that’s what keeps you from rising against it. —Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida Patient R was in a hurry. I signed int