Scientists have created a mystery material that seems to conduct electricity without any resistance at temperatures of up to about 15 °C. That’s a new record for superconductivity, a phenomenon usually associated with very cold temperatures. The material itself is poorly understood, but it shows the potential of a class of superconductors discovered in 2015. The superconductor […]
Copper, lead and zinc are essential for modern technology’s electronics and batteries. Demand has skyrocketed, and mining companies are depleting known deposits faster than prospectors can find more. Now an international team of scientists has discovered a relationship between deposits of these metals and the thickness of the lithosphere (the earth’s crust and upper mantle), […]
Zeke Dunn of Brooklyn has worked at polling places in nearly every primary and general election since 2017. The 39-year-old television producer says doing so provides a way for him to connect with his neighbors and fulfill his civic duty. But this past June he skipped working in New York State’s primary: his partner is […]
Four hundred years ago Galileo Galilei’s scientific findings were rejected because they didn’t fit the prevailing beliefs of the time. His story is disturbingly relevant today. Astrophysicist and author Mario Livio and Scientific American editor Clara Moskowitz to discusses lessons from Galileo’s life for dealing with science deniers now, plus a historical detective story about […]
In late September, a New York Supreme Court judge ordered a judicial inquiry into the death of Eric Garner. In 2014, Garner’s last words, “I can’t breathe,” caught on tape, became a national rally cry for criminal justice reform in the United States. Those same words have been spoken by many Black men during their […]
In August, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was interviewed on the New York Times podcast The Daily, where he was asked explicitly what his company will do if President Donald Trump uses Twitter to declare himself the winner of the 2020 election before the results have been decided. Dorsey paused, then provided a vague answer about […]
All domestic dogs belong to a single species that descended from wolves—despite vast differences in size, appearance, behavior and temperament among breeds. While dogs first became domesticated tens of thousands of years ago, the breeds we know today are largely the result of selection for certain traits by humans over the past several hundred years. […]
Over the past two decades, 20 natural disasters made worse by climate change have caused damage to countries worth 10% or more of their national output. In the most severe instance, the devastation Hurricane Maria brought to the tiny Caribbean country of Dominica in 2017 accounted for 260% of its gross domestic product. Two years […]
The risk factors for COVID-19 are many: old age, obesity, heart conditions. But early genetic studies have identified another trait that some people who develop severe COVID-19 seem to share: a cluster of genetic variations on their third chromosome. And that DNA sequence likely derives from Neandertals, says Hugo Zeberg of the Max Planck Institute. […]
On August 9, 2017, paleontologists at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City unveiled the largest animal ever to walk the earth. Dubbed Patagotitan mayorum, the reconstructed skeleton of the 100-million-year-old dinosaur was so huge that it didn’t even fit wholly inside the room in which it stood. The dinosaur’s long neck, […]