In the periodic table, no element is more important than another one. But in the Standard Model—a theory that explains the smallest constituents of the universe and the forces that govern them, minus gravity—the Higgs boson is arguably central. Like other elementary bosons—such as photons, the particles of light—the Higgs is a “force carrier.” Instead […]
Like all pandemics, it started out small. A novel coronavirus emerged in Brazil, jumping from bats to pigs to farmers before making its way to a big city with an international airport. From there, infected travellers carried it to the United States, Portugal and China. Within 18 months, the coronavirus had spread around the world, […]
Linguistic anthropologists have observed that people all over the world perceive languages, and speakers of those different languages, as fundamentally different from one another. When people listen to others’ speech, they hear discrete categorical boundaries even when differences in speech exist along a continuum. Our minds, and not just our ears, perceive these differences: we […]
A drug that treats poisoning from heavy metals may also offer a fighting chance at surviving a venomous snakebite. In a study published in May in Science Translational Medicine, researchers show that oral doses of the medication can reduce viper venom’s effects in mice. Saw-scaled or carpet vipers are a group of aggressive venomous snake […]
Some ocean animals have a clever form of camouflage—they’re transparent. But being see-through is far less common on land. “And there’s a few reasons why that may be.” Jim Barnett is a postdoctoral research fellow at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. (He began this research as a doctoral student at the University of Bristol.) “Differences […]
The United States has recently taken some important steps to rectify past injustices to Native Americans. These include the Supreme Court upholding an 1833 treaty guaranteeing tribal sovereignty in eastern Oklahoma, and several professional sports teams getting rid of offensive names such as “Redskins.” However, in my profession—global change ecology—I believe there is a trend […]
The Lebanese capital Beirut was rocked on Tuesday evening local time by an explosion that has killed at least 78 people and injured thousands more. The country’s prime minister Hassan Diab said the blast was caused by around 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored near the city’s cargo port. Video footage appears to show a fire burning nearby before […]
SpaceX just flew a full-size prototype of its Starship Mars-colonizing spacecraft for the first time ever. The Starship SN5 test vehicle took to the skies for about 40 seconds this afternoon (Aug. 4) at SpaceX’s facilities near the South Texas village of Boca Chica, performing a small hop that could end up being a big step toward human exploration […]
Memory loss and forgetfulness are common warning signs for dementia. But a dulling of the senses also appears to be associated with dementia. “Smell is definitely the strongest one we found, but it does seem like it’s not just smell.” Willa Brenowitz, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. Her team studied cognitive […]
In April of 2018, we described in this magazine our effort to enlist colleagues in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to sign a “Statement to Restore Science-Based Policy in Government.” This statement was an urgent call for scientific input in federal policymaking. Now we find ourselves in dismay as the COVID-19 pandemic continues […]