
Bat Cave Footage Offers Clues to How Viruses Leap Between Species
Video from a national park in Uganda depicted a parade of predatory species feeding on and dispersing fruit bats that are known natural reservoirs of infectious diseases.
Video from a national park in Uganda depicted a parade of predatory species feeding on and dispersing fruit bats that are known natural reservoirs of infectious diseases.
Hundreds of graduate students are writing to their hometown newspapers to defend their research, as the Trump administration drastically reduces science funding.
The 150-million-year-old specimen is valued at up to $6 million. Some paleontologists worry this auction and earlier ones are driving fossil market speculators.
The secret beauty in apples, stars and the center of you.
The radiological threat from the targets of the earliest attacks are relatively minor.
For nearly three decades he has created mesmerizing planetarium shows at the American Museum of Natural History. But other galaxies await.
She was ridiculed for drilling a hole in her skull to increase blood flow, but her foundation’s research into the therapeutic use of counterculture drugs proved visionary.
From viruses to humans, life makes microproteins that have evaded discovery until now.
Kseniia Petrova, a Harvard researcher, still faces criminal charges for failing to declare scientific samples she was carrying in her suitcase.
Every breath you take, they really may be watching you.
The National Hurricane Center will experiment with the company’s DeepMind program to enhance the work of its expert meteorologists.
A new study suggests that bedbugs were the first urban pest, and their population thrived in that environment. For the bloodsucking insects, it’s been the perfect 13,000-year-long marriage.
Este verano, el color rojizo de la Luna será especialmente pronunciado porque el satélite natural está en la posición más baja que alcanzará en unos 19 años.
June’s full moon, known as a “strawberry moon,” may appear reddish because of its low position on the Southern Horizon.
Las imágenes del Solar Orbiter de la Agencia Espacial Europea revelan un magnetismo solar caótico en la región polar del Sol. Se esperan imágenes aún mejores en los próximos años.
An expedition in the Southern Ocean captured video of a rare species of deep-sea cephalopod. Until now, it had been found only in fishing nets and in the bellies of seabirds.
Visuals from the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter reveal chaotic solar magnetism in the solar polar region. Even better images are expected in the years ahead.
Her work in Brazil challenged the prevailing theory of when humans first arrived in the Americas and led to the development of a forgotten corner of the country.
One part of Musk and Trump’s public breakup should not get lost: the reality of Musk’s importance to American national security.
“It’s the smoking gun, or the steaming guts,” said a paleontologist from a team that also found that the sauropods didn’t chew their food.
In the world of taxicab geometry, even the Pythagorean theorem takes a back seat.
A nurse practitioner spoke on the phone with patients in states with abortion bans, assessed their medical eligibility and sent pills. She took some unconventional steps to protect their privacy.
A millenniums-old settlement in Michigan has archaeologists rethinking the rise of agriculture on the continent.
La decisión del presidente Trump de retirar a un estrecho colaborador de Elon Musk de la candidatura para dirigir la NASA contribuyó a condenar una extraordinaria alianza.
The president could tighten federal oversight of the tech titan’s businesses, even if heavy reliance by the Pentagon and NASA on them makes terminating Mr. Musk’s contracts less feasible.
President Trump’s decision to pull a close associate of Elon Musk’s out of the running to lead NASA helped doom an extraordinary partnership.
For all the insults that Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump traded on Thursday, don’t be surprised if they make up again days from now. In the meantime, they both benefit.
In “The Once and Future World Order,” by Amitav Acharya, and “The Golden Road,” by William Dalrymple, our best hope might be that history repeats itself.
For decades, Richard Garwin fought the apocalyptic bomb he had brought to life.
If President Trump cancels the contracts for Elon Musk’s private spaceflight company, the federal government would struggle to achieve many goals in orbit and beyond.
His career took flight with a newspaper ad in Ottawa — the same city where he would later help steer the country under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Ispace crashed on the moon in 2023. Its second spacecraft, Resilience, aims in the hours ahead to succeed where its predecessor failed.
The U.S. health secretary said people should have access to experimental therapies including unregulated uses of stem cells. But some methods have resulted in blindness, tumors and other injuries.
A gory set of manuals, one dating to the 17th century, advised Japanese warriors in the secret ways of seppuku.
A picture taken recently by a Japanese company’s spacecraft shows how your interpretation of objective reality can be tested by the power of illusion.
He worked for the Brooklyn Dodgers and wrote about sports but mostly focused on conservation, publishing a sequel to Rachel Carson’s exposé on the dangers of pesticides.
Buddhist temples in China are home to trees from dozens of endangered species, a new study shows. Some of them are almost 2,000 years old.
They had also learned how to flip open garbage lids in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Scientists wonder what they’ll work out next.
The Trump administration asked Congress for roughly $11 billion more in annual spending for the federal agency that oversees nuclear weapon activities.
The deviant behavior of a tiny particle called the muon might point to undiscovered forms of matter and energy in the universe. Or it might not.
A geomagnetic storm that was forecast to produce streaks of colorful light across much of the country was weaker than expected.
A.I.’s takeover of jobs may come first for computer science.
Research breakthroughs are often sagas of passion, curiosity and sacrifice. If Trump’s proposed budget cuts for 2026 are enacted, many such journeys may never get started.
President Trump withdrew his nomination of Jared Isaacman, an ally of Elon Musk, because of donations he had made to Democrats. But people with knowledge of the events say Mr. Isaacman had disclosed the contributions.
Jared Isaacman was a close associate of Elon Musk, whose SpaceX company has multiple contracts with NASA.
Residents have a saying in Spruce Pine, that a piece of their home is in tech across the globe. But could geopolitical tensions hurt their mining tradition, and their lucrative quartz business?
Together with Willard S. Boyle, he invented an imaging device that is an essential part of nearly every telescope, photocopier and digital camera used today.
He worked with a team at the University of Utah to create a mechanical heart. It was later used in patients awaiting an organ transplant.
The small world was found during a search for the hypothetical Planet Nine, and astronomers say the next time it will reach its closest point to the sun is in the year 26186.
The judge ordered ICE to release Kseniia Petrova, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, who also faces criminal charges.
Scientists found a way to get 30 kitties to cooperate with a study exploring the power of the feline scent of smell.
El gigantesco cohete Starship de Elon Musk se jugaba mucho en el noveno vuelo, luego de los fracasos en los vuelos de enero y marzo, que alteraron el transporte aéreo.
The robotic Tianwen-2 spacecraft will collect samples from Kamoʻoalewa, which some scientists suspect is a fragment of the moon.
Scientists have learned that another species of fungus found in Europe and Asia causes white-nose disease, which has ravaged bat populations in the United States and Canada.
It is time once again to head to your nearest crosstown view for New York City’s best annual sunsets, if the weather cooperates.
Much is riding on Flight 9 for Elon Musk’s giant moon and Mars rocket after debris from January and March flights fell into the Atlantic Ocean, disrupting air travel.
Physicists who record rocket launches and landings, most often by SpaceX, are learning important facts about the acoustics of spaceflight.
Federal layoffs and grant terminations threaten efforts to understand and preserve the nation’s past. “We are getting cut off at the knees,” said one archaeologist.
Growths on plants formed by parasitic weevils help their offspring hunker down on a Brazilian savanna and outlast the flames.
En abril, los astrónomos dijeron que habían detectado una posible señal de vida en el exoplaneta K2-18b. Ahora, tres análisis independientes descartan las pruebas.
With an underwater drone named Rhody, archaeologists are mapping some of the dozens of sunken vessels in Lake Ontario.
In April, astronomers said they had detected a possible signature of life on the exoplanet K2-18b. Now, three independent analyses discount the evidence.
More than half of the National Science Foundation grants terminated since April fund programs that would help students train in science, engineering and math.
El papel de Richard Garwin en el diseño de la bomba de hidrógeno se ocultó al público, incluso a su familia, mientras asesoraba a presidentes y dedicaba su vida a deshacer el peligro que había creado.
The discovery of a 17th-century “foot-ball” pitch in Scotland would relocate the birthplace of the modern game.
These gentle giants have poor eyesight and may not be able to see fishnets and boats with which they have fatal encounters.
Male capuchin monkeys on a Panamanian island were documented carrying around infant howler monkeys for no clearly discernible reason.
Richard Garwin’s role in designing the hydrogen bomb was obscured from the public, even his family, as he advised presidents and devoted his life to undoing the danger he created.
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.
In his essay collection “Virology,” Joseph Osmundson examines the myriad ways we coexist with viruses.
The spread of the subvariants adds more uncertainty to the trajectory of the pandemic in the United States.
Ravindra Gupta, who led the efforts that resulted in the second case of a patient being cured of H.I.V., was drawn into pandemic research.
Readers discuss the Florida Department of Education’s objections to some of the topics in math textbooks. Also: The Ukraine war; mask mandates.