This Toad Is So Tiny That They Call It a Flea
A “toadlet” in Brazil is the second-smallest vertebrate known to exist on the planet.
A “toadlet” in Brazil is the second-smallest vertebrate known to exist on the planet.
A philosopher journeys into the world of comparative thanatology, which explores how animals of all kinds respond to death and dying.
Shyamala Gopalan Harris, la madre de la candidata presidencial, fue una investigadora del cáncer de mama cuya política igualitaria a menudo se oponía a la cultura patriarcal de los laboratorios.
The presidential candidate’s mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, was a breast cancer researcher whose egalitarian politics often bucked a patriarchal lab culture.
The brainy birds carry big chips on their shoulders, scientists say. And some people who become subjects of their ire may be victims of mistaken identity.
Forecasters will soon be able to use the instrument, a coronagraph, to better monitor the effects of solar storms.
With a new database of medical images, zoo and wildlife vets can finally see what healthy uncommon animals, from rhinos and tamarins to pangolins and sea stars, should look like on the inside.
He shared the 1972 physics prize for showing how some materials could convey electricity without resistance. He also did pioneering research in neuroscience.
Three NASA astronauts and a fourth from the Russian space agency returned to Earth from the International Space Station on Friday morning in a SpaceX capsule.
Fossils reveal that prehistoric cicadas’ wings evolved to help them evade hungry predators with feathers and beaks, scientists say.
Archaeologists in Norway have confirmed that an ancient set of human remains known as the Well Man were intended to make the locals unwell.
NASA and the U.S. Poet Laureate may not be obvious collaborators, but a Jupiter-bound mission helped them find common ground.
Unos astrónomos ofrecieron una nueva hipótesis sobre lo que creó los misteriosos pares de objetos similares a planetas llamados JuMBO, que algunos científicos dudan que existan en primer lugar.
His provocative research made him a popular figure on campus. But his exploration of how good people can turn evil raised ethical questions.
She lived to 28, roaming the Yellowstone area with her many offspring while becoming a favorite among both residents and visitors.
Astronomers offered a new hypothesis for what created pairs of objects nicknamed JuMBOs, while other scientists argue they may not really exist.
A documentary filmmaker and a mathematician discuss our fear of numbers and its civic costs.
The group of scientists and economists said they feared a Trump presidency would impede progress in science and technology and in fighting climate change.
Scientists say they have observed one of the highest-altitude acts of bird predation ever recorded.
The discovery suggests that trade routes along the Silk Road were far more complex than previously understood.
The leader of the long-running study said that the drugs did not improve mental health in children with gender distress and that the finding might be weaponized by opponents of the care.
The Ames Test offered a fast and inexpensive way to identify carcinogens, leading to the banning of chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects.
The discovery may push back the emergence of the reptiles that once ruled the Earth, and clarify how dinosaurs like the Triceratops and Stegosaurus emerged.
His two-decade quest to find elusive brain hormones became a race against Roger Guillemin, a onetime colleague and an eventual fellow prizewinner.
By learning the secrets of 2,000-year-old cement, researchers are trying to devise greener, more durable modern options.
Este acontecimiento, relacionado con el cometa Halley, coincide con el paso del cometa Tsuchinshan-ATLAS en el hemisferio norte. Pero una Luna casi llena podría interferir en algunas vistas.
This event is linked to Halley’s comet, and occurs as another comet, Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, remains visible. But a nearly full moon could interfere with some views.
Two new studies found that ancient human ancestors carried a surprising diversity of genes for amylase, an enzyme that breaks down starch.
A staple in laboratories worldwide, C. elegans is “an experimental dream,” said one scientist.
Using Google’s AlphaFold, researchers identified the bundle of three sperm proteins that seem to make sexual reproduction possible.
With a new kind of microscope, researchers got a different view of how marine snow falls to the seafloor.
Dr. Sam Yoon and a collaborator duplicated images across their research studies over many years. The collaborator has left Columbia.
In an elaborate experiment, scientists discovered that the insects chose to hibernate in soil full of pesticides and other poisons.
Prada and Axiom Space unveiled their NASA spacesuits, in the most far-out collaboration yet.
Los astrónomos aún no han confirmado la existencia de exolunas, pero una señal molecular alrededor de una estrella lejana ofrece algunas de las mejores evidencias hasta el momento.
Astronomers have yet to confirm the existence of exomoons, but a molecular signal around a far away star offers some of the best evidence yet.
La misión Europa Clipper despegó en un cohete Falcon Heavy de Space X y viajará casi seis años para llegar al planeta.
La compañía completó con éxito un vuelo de prueba del cohete más potente construido hasta ahora. Algunos residentes de Texas cercanos al lugar experimentaron temblores cuando el propulsor fue atrapado por brazos mecánicos.
Europa Clipper will study whether Europa, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, possesses ingredients and conditions favorable for life.
The spacecraft lifted off Monday on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, embarking on a nearly six-year journey to Jupiter.
SpaceX launched and returned a large rocket booster to its Texas site, catching it with mechanical arms in its first-ever “chopsticks” landing.
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission represents something bigger than just the study of an icy moon of Jupiter.
The company completed a successful test flight of the most powerful rocket ever built. Some residents near the Texas site experienced shaking as the landing vehicle was caught by mechanical arms.
Bigger than the Statue of Liberty, the SpaceX vehicle is central to NASA’s plans to get to the moon and Elon Musk’s dreams of the red planet.
The agency said the company had agreed to study the environmental impact of its launches in South Texas and ways to mitigate harm to wildlife.
A commission denied a request to increase the number of rocket launches on the state’s central coast, citing environmental concerns.
Un estallido de actividad solar elevada creó el jueves condiciones que mantuvieron la mirada de la gente sobre los paisajes nocturnos en todo el hemisferio norte.
An outburst from elevated solar activity created conditions on Thursday that kept people’s eyes glued to evening views all over the Northern Hemisphere.
The Tsavo man-eaters terrorized railroad workers in British East Africa in the 19th century, but their tastes went well beyond human flesh.
Some birds migrate thousands of miles every autumn. How exactly do they manage it? Scientists built a flight chamber to find out.
The aurora borealis, which transformed the sky with startling streaks of pink and purple, arose from a magnetic storm.
A sequence of images captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope showed how much the giant storm changed shape as it traveled within the planet’s atmosphere.
El cometa Tsuchinshan-ATLAS se acerca a la Tierra y cada vez es más brillante.
An explosion of particles arrived at Earth on Thursday, and could lead to visible northern lights in much of the country while also raising power grid concerns.
El Nobel, concedido a David Baker, de la Universidad de Washington, y a Demis Hassabis y John Jumper, de Google DeepMind, es el segundo de esta semana que involucra la inteligencia artificial.
Covid learning loss and chronic absenteeism aren’t going to fix themselves
The Nobel, awarded to David Baker of the University of Washington and Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper of Google DeepMind, is the second this week to involve artificial intelligence.
The computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton spoke with The Times shortly after learning he had won the Nobel Prize for Physics.
With work on machine learning that uses artificial neural networks, John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton “showed a completely new way for us to use computers,” the committee said.
As a group of historians and a top biographer square off, proponents of a middle path see a tangled life in which the superstar of science was, and was not, a true Communist at the same time.
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is nearing Earth and getting brighter.
Primitive animals called comb jellies can fuse their bodies and nervous systems together.
The Hera spacecraft, which took flight late Monday morning, is part of a broader effort to bolster humanity’s planetary defense readiness.
The Nobel Foundation offers prizes in only three scientific disciplines, but other awards have been created to honor scientists in different fields.
La montaña más alta de la Tierra sigue creciendo lo mismo que el grosor de un espagueti cada año. Un nuevo estudio añade una posible causa de ese crecimiento.
A former Coast Guard specialist’s testimony capped two weeks of hearings into the implosion of a submersible that killed five during an attempt to explore the Titanic.
The discovery that sound improves the growth rate of beneficial fungus suggests that dirges in the dirt may help restore forests.
A new study offers clues to a 179-year-old mystery that killed more than 100 explorers on the Franklin expedition in the Canadian Arctic.
Scientists recently found the planet’s longest continuously occupied termite colony in an arid region of South Africa. It dates to the time of the Neanderthals.
Scientists have wondered if the many captive tigers in the United States could one day help restore the species in the wild.
Works by Ada Limón and Peter Sís, Randy Cecil, Lucy Ruth Cummins and more depict the poetry, wonder and droll humor inspired by the great beyond.
Scientists are studying whether future astronauts on deep-space journeys could transform compounds in asteroids into food.
Nuclear experts see Tehran as facing up to a year of hard work to master the knotty basics of building a deliverable atom bomb.
No todo el mundo podrá ver el fenómeno, conocido como eclipse anular, pero un eclipse solar parcial podrá ser visible el miércoles en partes de Brasil y Uruguay, así como en zonas de la Antártida y Hawái.
Scientists have mapped out how 140,000 neurons are wired in the brain of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster.
Not everyone will be able to see the phenomenon, known as an annular eclipse, on Wednesday, though a partial solar eclipse may be visible in parts of Antarctica and Hawaii.
Male locusts have long been observed shielding mates from other males. Researchers say this behavior may also protect the females from desert temperatures.
The rediscovery of the vessel, which was captured by the Japanese for a time during World War II, highlights the potential of underwater autonomous vehicles to map the ocean floor.
Researchers say that two rivers merged some 89,000 years ago and gave the mightiest peak in the Himalayas a huge growth spurt.
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.