The (fossil) eyes have it: Evidence that an ancient owl hunted in daylight
The structure of bones around the eye indicate a small pupil that let in less light.
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Feature Story
How to build a wormhole in just 3 (nearly impossible) steps
Planning a trip to the Andromeda Galaxy? Not so fast.
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An encyclopedia of geology that’s less a reference than a journey
Rocks are not nouns but verbs, says Marcia Bjornerud in her new book.
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Feature Story
“Elephant in the room”: Clean energy’s need for unsustainable minerals
Our need for minerals may strain supply and lead to environmental issues.
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Scientists blast out Earth’s location with the hope of reaching aliens
"These efforts are like building a big bonfire in the woods and hoping someone finds you."
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Not quite Le Mans: 24-hour race won by molecule that traveled 1 micron
A gold-plated racetrack and fuel from a scanning tunneling microscope.
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Lithium costs a lot of money—so why aren’t we recycling lithium batteries?
The nascent recycling industry needs to economically deconstruct lots of formats.
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Titanosaur nesting spot found in Brazil
Find suggests the titanosaurs didn't need to migrate to favorable nesting sites.
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Try your hand at Quantum Go Fish
"A cross between a logic puzzle, an improv comedy session, and a collective hallucination."
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Feature Story
The punch that changed Mortal Kombat history
A punch-filled excerpt from upcoming history book Long Live Mortal Kombat.
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Feature Story
A brief tour of the PDP-11, the most influential minicomputer of all time
It helped popularize the interactive computing paradigm we take for granted today.
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When a seismic network failed, citizen science stepped in
With Haiti's seismic network down, Raspberry Shakes came through in a quake.
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Surprise eruptions are Earth’s overlooked threat
We knew that volcano was prone to eruptions—but there are many we're not sure about.
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Feature Story
The most important computer you’ve never heard of
How SAGE jumpstarted today’s technology and built IBM into a powerhouse.
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Extreme weather could be as expensive as investing in cutting carbon ASAP
Overshoot climate targets, even briefly, and the costs of extreme weather go up.
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How “stars” are helping the French keep the night sky dark
A voluntary program is encouraging towns to manage their lighting.
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Staying below 2° C warming costs less than overshooting and correcting
Most current policies assume we'll need carbon capture, but there's a big cost.
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Smokers gave a home to bacteria that now sicken people with cystic fibrosis
Explaining how M. abscessus was ready once CF patients started living longer.
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Rainy years can’t make up for California’s groundwater use
And without additional restrictions, they may not recover for several decades.
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A fossil site reveals an ancient sinkhole and its enormous occupant
A road project in Tennessee revealed an enigmatic fossil of an enormous mastodon.
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Feature Story
How will our warming climate stabilize? Scientists look to the distant past
Can the deep past help us understand our future?
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The ancient origins of glass
Glass's rich history is being traced using modern archaeology and materials science.
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We transformed a London borough into a game to get fewer people traveling by car
Here's what happened.
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Will glow-in-the-dark materials someday light our cities?
Photoluminescent substances could be applied to sidewalks, streets, and buildings.
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Feature Story
Was 1980 the worst automotive year ever?
40 years ago, abysmal products and a shifting market altered everything for Big Auto.
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Feature Story
Keeping science reproducible in a world of custom code and data
Computer analysis is now a central part of science.
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Scientists extend and straighten iconic climate “hockey stick”
24,000 years of climate history, with our current warming being unique in the record.
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Feature Story
How to reduce our carbon footprint
Like right now—here’s what you can do after you read this.
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Spiders are much smarter than you think
Researchers are discovering surprising capabilities among a group of itsy-bitsy arachnids.
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300-year-old tree rings confirm recent uptick in hurricane-driven rainfall
There’s been nothing like these cyclone seasons for at least several centuries.
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Feature Story
9 past mistakes offer lessons for today’s hot new automakers
More than 2,000 American automakers have come and gone in this chaotic industry.
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The train that shrunk France… and Western Europe
The record-setting high-speed train went into service on this day 40 years ago.
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How the Le Mans hydrogen racer is shaping up
In preparation for a hydrogen-powered category, Le Mans saw laps from prototypes.
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Feature Story
The challenge of finding new tools to fight prostate cancer
Why prostate cancer is so hard to study—and how researchers are overcoming that.
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Feature Story
Excerpt: How Google bought Android—according to folks in the room
Enjoy a sneak peek from Androids: The team that built the Android operating system.
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A global index to track the health of tropical rainforests
Tropical rainforests are a canary in the coal mine of climate change.
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