
A Defender of Darkness in the Darkest Place on Earth
A Chilean astronomer has become dedicated to battling light pollution in the Atacama Desert and preserve what is considered the best place on Earth to study space.
A Chilean astronomer has become dedicated to battling light pollution in the Atacama Desert and preserve what is considered the best place on Earth to study space.
Los científicos de la agencia aún no afirman haber encontrado fósiles de microbios marcianos, pero el análisis del espécimen recolectado por el rover Perseverance plantea esa posibilidad.
Durante milenios, nuestra vista de las estrellas ha cambiado debido a la oscilación de la Tierra. Quizás es tiempo de averiguar qué signo eres.
Scientists set out to understand all the ways the animals use their eight appendages. It wasn’t easy.
Many winners of the annual Lasker Awards have gone on to win a Nobel Prize in medicine or other fields.
Las celebraciones por el décimo aniversario del Observatorio de Ondas Gravitacionales con Interferometría Láser se han visto ensombrecidas por la muerte de uno de sus fundadores y un posible recorte drástico de presupuesto.
NASA is still not saying it has found fossils of Martian microbes, but analysis of a rock collected by the Perseverance rover raises that possibility.
Ten years ago, astronomers made an epic discovery with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. Cosmology hasn’t been the same since, and it might not stay that way much longer.
Behind the scenes, major pharmaceutical companies and Trump-tied billionaires are furiously lobbying in opposite directions over proposed anti-China measures.
If the results are promising, veterinarians hope to give the shots to wild Hawaiian monk seals, which are endangered.
Las empresas tecnológicas están realizando simulacros con IA, láseres y más para demostrar que pueden formar parte de la Cúpula Dorada, el ambicioso plan del presidente de EE. UU. para un escudo antimisiles.
Scientists cannot say for certain, but new research suggests that different people’s brains respond similarly when looking at a particular hue.
Tech companies are displaying A.I., lasers and more as they compete for a piece of President Trump’s ambitious plan for a missile defense shield.
Scientists are steadily ruling out habitable conditions on the seven planets of the star Trappist-1. On one of the worlds, a nitrogen gas-rich veil remains a possibility.
The bumpy snailfish, discovered 10,000 feet down off the coast of California, shows that not all denizens of the abyss are frightening.
As China threatens to overtake U.S. leadership in science and technology, America has responded by sabotaging its own engines of progress.
Over millennia, our view of the stars has shifted, because of Earth’s wobble. It may be time to rethink your sign.
A total lunar eclipse, commonly called a blood moon, crossed the sky in parts of Asia, Australia, Europe and Africa.
He was only 37 when he made a discovery that challenged the existing tenets of biology and led to an understanding of retroviruses and viruses, including H.I.V.,
Scientists studied how the sea creatures, also known as chimaeras or ghost sharks, ended up with one of evolution’s most bizarre appendages.
Los habitantes del hemisferio oriental podrán ver pasar la sombra de la Tierra sobre la superficie lunar, cubriendo de rojo el satélite natural de nuestro planeta.
People in the Eastern Hemisphere may see Earth’s shadow pass over the lunar surface, covering our world’s natural satellite in a flush of red.
He was pivotal in discovering how sound waves are converted into signals that the brain can perceive as a whisper, a symphony or a thunderclap.
Researchers hope the technique could offer a more environmentally friendly approach to cleaning up messy clothing.
It’s about more than figuring out the right or wrong answers to questions.
Using data from NASA’s retired InSight lander, two separate teams of researchers found evidence of a sluggish Martian mantle and a solid inner core.
Some marine ecosystems could soon be unrecognizable, according to new research. We mapped the possibilities.
They work for depression and P.T.S.D. Could they also help the brain repair itself after a neurologic catastrophe?
Neurologists are exploring medications that would help the brain heal itself after a stroke or traumatic injury.
A recent study hints at the potential benefits of restoring bison to an ecosystem.
Changes in screening recommendations over a decade ago may have inadvertently resulted in later diagnosis of the most common cancer in men, a new study has found.
Un grupo de investigación formado exclusivamente por mujeres, As Meteoriticas, recorre el interior del país sudamericano con el objetivo de conservar meteoritos para su estudio científico y su exhibición pública.
An all-female research group, As Meteoriticas, scours the South American country’s interior aiming to preserve meteorites for scientific study and public display.
Authoritarians have long feared and suppressed science as a rival for social influence. Experts see President Trump as borrowing some of their tactics.
In her latest book, Eugenia Cheng, a mathematician, explores the choices we make to determine if two things — numbers, shapes, words and even people — are equal.
The award-winning science writer Peter Brannen makes the case for an often vilified compound in “The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything.”
In her groundbreaking trilogy, “Women Scientists in America,” she told the stories of numerous accomplished but largely invisible women.
Unos científicos publicaron este mes un estudio sobre el tiburón nodriza con un color singular que fue capturado y fotografiado por pescadores deportivos el año pasado.
Scientists published a study this month on the nurse shark, which was caught and photographed by sport fishermen last year.
En una prueba de concepto, los investigadores demostraron que con bioingeniería podían inyectar un par de horas de luz en una planta común.
A fossil found in Argentina shows that up to the very end of the age of dinosaurs, they faced serious competition from other reptile species.
A new study reveals some of the crucial molecular steps on the path to bipedalism.
In a proof of concept, researchers demonstrated that they could bioengineer a couple of hours of light into a common plant.
Scientists have found that a single tree can be home to a trillion microbial cells — an invisible ecosystem that is only beginning to be understood.
After two consecutive scrubs, the Starship vehicle is due for its 10th test flight as Elon Musk’s company aims to overcome earlier setbacks.
He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on gravitational waves, which helped confirm Einstein’s general theory of relativity and how the universe began.
Honeycomb, a mathematical marvel, is made by worker bees. A new study shows that the insects are very good at adapting to wonky foundations.
To blunt the toxic arsenic in the waters where it lives, a deep-sea worm combines it with another chemical to produce a less toxic compound.
Elon Musk’s company is trying again to overcome setbacks faced by its Starship prototype after a Sunday night scrub of a test flight.
The genome of a small, remarkable sea horse offers a surprising lesson in nature’s creativity.
Two of the objects in the arrangement are cold brown dwarfs, which will serve as a benchmark for others throughout the Milky Way.
After setbacks in its last three flight attempts, Elon Musk’s company has a lot riding on the latest trip of its Starship prototype.
Life on the red planet? “Bosh and nonsense,” said one astronomer. But according to “The Martians,” plenty of self-appointed experts argued otherwise.
A reassessment of the iconic species has “some dramatic implications for how we view giraffe conservation across Africa,” a new study concludes.
For some cultures, the practice of cranial deformation may have offered individuals a path to privilege later in their lives.
La inusual explosión desprendió las capas internas de una estrella moribunda y ofreció pistas sobre cómo se forjaron los elementos que componen la vida en la Tierra.
Researchers discovered a new type of origami called bloom patterns, which are repeating tiles of creased patterns that rotate symmetrically around a center. Engineers are working on real-life applications, like a collapsable space telescope for NASA.
Rare footage of spectral bats, known also as great false vampire bats, revealed animals with a cuddly, social side.
The rare blast peeled back the inner layers of a dying star, offering clues to how the elements that make up life on Earth were forged.
The 29th moon found to be orbiting the solar system’s 7th planet is about six miles wide.
Bloom patterns could be useful, as engineers build folding structures to send to outer space. They’re also very pretty.
The National Park Service terminated Shannon Joslin over the May 20 demonstration, which it said took place in a prohibited area and lacked the required permits.
Streaked shearwaters keep a very regular rhythm throughout their daily foraging flights, shedding about 5 percent of their body mass every hour.
Giving up on mRNA is a dangerous decision.
China’s biotechnology sector has established a bright future by focusing not on breakthrough cures and treatments but on speed and efficiency.
New research outlines how the savvy blue dasher lives happily in storm drains and park ponds others flee.
In 1978, Jerry Slocum assembled the first International Puzzle Party in his living room. Now it’s a global event.
La empresa de Elon Musk depende de los contratos federales, pero es muy probable que años de pérdidas le hayan permitido evitar el pago de impuestos federales sobre la renta.
Elon Musk’s rocket company relies on federal contracts, but years of losses have most likely let it avoid paying federal income taxes, according to internal company documents.
Astronomers had hoped to observe an atmosphere on one of the seven planets known to orbit Trappist-1, a red dwarf star. A new study found nothing to write home about.
A cognitive scientist, she used the language of computers to explore the nature of human thought and creativity, offering prescient insights about A.I.
In a recent study, scientists successfully decoded not only the words people tried to say but the words they merely imagined saying.
Sleuths have solved three of the panels of the Kryptos sculpture at the agency’s headquarters. Now the artwork’s creator is announcing the sale of the solution to the fourth.
The unsightly bunnies are infected with cottontail rabbit papillomavirus, which can cause growths that resemble warts or tentacles.
A new tagging method called tap-and-go allows researchers to gather more data on the health and behavior of whales, with less disruption.
The agency narrowed who can get the shot and added new study requirements that could cost the company tens of millions.
As China and the United States trade charges of a lab leak, researchers contend in a new paper that the Covid pandemic got its start, like a previous one, in the wildlife trade.
The White House has thrown its weight behind the lab leak theory, an idea that has divided intelligence agencies.
With little post-pandemic recovery, experts wonder if screen time and school absence are among the causes.
On the test, American fourth and eighth graders posted results similar to scores from 1995. It was a sign of notable stagnation, even as other countries saw improvements.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other candidates for top health posts are at odds with the drug industry, setting the stage for tense battles over regulatory changes.
Covid learning loss and chronic absenteeism aren’t going to fix themselves
Dr. Fauci testified before a House panel investigating Covid’s origins. The panel found emails suggesting that his aides were skirting public records laws.
A scientist finds beauty in the “visual synonyms” that exist in images seen through microscopes and telescopes.
A long-awaited new policy broadens the type of regulated viruses, bacteria, fungi and toxins, including those that could threaten crops and livestock.
A heated hearing produced no new evidence that Peter Daszak or his nonprofit, EcoHealth Alliance, were implicated in the Covid outbreak.
Prosecutors said Keith Berman falsely claimed he had invented a blood test that could detect Covid-19 in 15 seconds. His lawyer said he had put “genuine effort” into developing such a test.
Los científicos que estudian la evolución continua del virus y las respuestas inmunitarias del organismo esperan evitar un rebrote y comprender mejor la covid prolongada.
Scientists studying the virus’s continuing evolution, and the body’s immune responses, hope to head off a resurgence and to better understand long Covid.
A new study of camera-trap images complicates the idea that all wildlife thrived during the Covid lockdowns.
In the Panamanian rainforest, scientists found the first known plant species to transform decaying tissue into a new source of nutrients.
Newly released documents indicate that a U.S. genetic database had received the sequence of the coronavirus two weeks before it was made public by others.
The dominant variant of the coronavirus has proved to be not only staggeringly infectious, but an evolutionary marvel.
Scientists doing “gain-of-function” research said that heightened fears of lab leaks are stalling studies that could thwart the next pandemic virus.
High-security labs, like this one at Penn State, are at the center of a debate over research that alters viruses to make them more dangerous.
Schools run by the Defense Department educate 66,000 children of civilian employees and service members.
Let’s bring back an era of accountability.
Despite billions in federal aid, students are not making up ground in reading and math: “We are actually seeing evidence of backsliding.”
The results are the federal government’s last major data release on the academic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Strict pandemic lockdowns may have allowed animals to range more widely and spend time closer to roads, a new study suggests.
Pandemic aid was supposed to help students recover from learning loss, but results have been mixed.
Tokophobia, as it’s called, is not often studied in the United States. But a new survey finds that it may be very common, particularly among Black women and in disadvantaged communities.
Lab safety doesn’t need to torpedo scientific progress.
The latest test results continue a nearly decade-long decline. Try a sample quiz to test your knowledge.
After analyzing genetic data swabbed from a Wuhan market in early 2020, a virologist said it was unclear if animals for sale there had been infected.
Leaders on the continent have vowed that if there is another pandemic, they won’t be shut out of the vaccine market.
Scientists from the Chinese C.D.C. confirmed that DNA from raccoon dogs and other animals susceptible to the coronavirus was found at the market in early 2020.
In a much-anticipated study, experts described a swab that was positive for the coronavirus and contained loads of genetic material from raccoon dogs.
Genetic samples from the market were recently uploaded to an international database and then removed after scientists asked China about them.
Some medications, like Ritalin and Vicodin, would require an in-person doctor’s visit under the new rules, a reaction to the pandemic-era rise of telemedicine.
Moderna has paid $400 million to the government for a chemical technique key to its vaccine. But the parties are still locked in a high-stakes dispute over a different patent.
Kizzmekia Corbett helped lead a team of scientists contributing to one of the most stunning achievements in the history of immunizations: a highly effective, easily manufactured vaccine against Covid-19.
Readers discuss experimentation on lab animals. Also: Racism in America; preparing for the next pandemic; maternal deaths; Amazon’s donations.
The White House will decide whether to adopt the panel’s recommendations on so-called gain of function experiments.
An internal federal watchdog said that the health agency had not given adequate oversight to EcoHealth Alliance, which had been awarded $8 million in grants.
A young version of the coronavirus makes up one-quarter of Covid cases across the United States and over 70 percent of new cases in the Northeast.
Plus China’s vaccination pivot and the year’s most stylish “people.”
Plus, China’s sluggish economy and the arrest of the Lockerbie bombing suspect.
Al cumplirse el aniversario del descubrimiento de la variante, los expertos en virología siguen intentando ponerse al día con la rápida transformación de ómicron.
One year after the variant’s discovery, virologists are still scrambling to keep up with Omicron’s rapid evolution.
Students missed a lot of high school instruction. Now many are behind, especially in math, and getting that degree could be harder.
In a vacuum, test score declines look like bad news. But none of this happened in a vacuum.
The report, signed by Senator Richard Burr, foreshadows a new wave of political wrangling over Covid’s origins if Republicans gain control of the House or Senate.
The results, from what is known as the nation’s report card, offer the most definitive picture yet of the pandemic’s devastating impact on students.
Mouse experiments at Boston University have spotlighted an ambiguous U.S. policy for research on potentially dangerous pathogens.
Benjamin Franklin Elementary in Connecticut overhauled the way it taught — and the way it ran the classroom. Every minute counted.
Readers respond to the latest Russian attacks in Ukraine. Also: The wonders of math; pandemic spending; Republicans and crime.
Maitland Jones, un profesor respetado, defendió sus estándares. Pero los estudiantes hicieron un reclamo y la universidad lo despidió.
Maitland Jones Jr., a respected professor, defended his standards. But students started a petition, and the university dismissed him.
The first standardized test results that capture how most city schoolchildren did during the pandemic offered a mixed picture.
La decimotercera variante con nombre del coronavirus parece tener una capacidad sorprendente para evolucionar con nuevas particularidades.
Omicron, the 13th named variant of the coronavirus, seems to have a remarkable capacity to evolve new tricks.
Many employees reduce their hours or stop working to help ailing family members. But it may be years before they fully return to the work force, studies indicate.
The results of a national test showed just how devastating the last two years have been for 9-year-old schoolchildren, especially the most vulnerable.
Urgently needed: teachers in struggling districts, certified in math or special education. Perks: maybe a pay raise, or how about a four-day week?
Here’s how a scrappy team of scientists, public health experts and plumbers is embracing wastewater surveillance as the future of disease tracking.
El coronavirus, como muchos otros virus, evoluciona deprisa. ¿Los seres humanos y su ingenio podrían adaptarse más rápido a él?
Human ingenuity must keep up with the coronavirus.
The papers, which have not yet been published in scientific journals, suggest that testing just a single type of sample is likely to miss a large share of infections.
A new report estimates that it may take students at least three to five years to recover from the pandemic. Federal relief money will most likely have run out by then.
Covid precautions created a global slowdown in human activity — and an opportunity to learn more about the complex ways we affect other species.
Working in a laboratory in Paris, scientists gave a close relative of the Covid virus the chance to evolve to be more like its cousin.
Pandemic shutdowns and restrictions led to a 20 percent drop in average daily physical activity among children and adolescents, a new analysis shows.
The vaccine has not yet been authorized but is expected to be soon.
The myxoma virus, fatal to millions of Australian rabbits, is a textbook example of the unexpected twists in the evolution of viruses and their hosts.
Officials have also been trying to determine whether the cases represent a new phenomenon or are simply a new recognition of one that has long existed; there have always been a subset of pediatric hepatitis cases with no clear cause.
“The lack of political cooperation from China continues to stifle any meaningful progress,” one expert said.