Science
Herd Flu
No One Knows How Far Bird Flu Has Spread
With little incentive for US farmers to test their cattle, and many undocumented laborers on dairy farms, the full scale of the outbreak is unclear.
Matt Reynolds
Unruly Gut Fungi Can Make Your Covid Worse
An infection can upset your microbiome, and if certain gut fungi run riot, this can kick the immune system into overdrive.
Maggie Chen
Bird Flu Is Spreading in Alarming New Ways
H5N1 has infected cattle across the US and jumped from a mammal to a human for the first time. Experts fear it may someday evolve to spread among humans.
David Cox
This Woman Will Decide Which Babies Are Born
Noor Siddiqui founded Orchid so people could “have healthy babies.” Now she’s using the company’s gene technology on herself—and talking about it for the first time.
Jason Kehe
‘In 24 Hours, You’ll Have Your Pills’: American Women Are Traveling to Mexico for Abortions
Since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, more women have been crossing the border to Mexico for abortion medications and procedures.
Carmen Valeria Escobar
How NASA Repaired Voyager 1 From 15 Billion Miles Away
The far-traveled space probe is once again transmitting usable data, after a glitch caused months of gibberish.
Stephen Clark, Ars Technica
NASA Confirms Where the Space Junk That Hit a Florida House Came From
Space law just got a little more complicated.
Stephen Clark, Ars Technica
Space Force Is Planning a Military Exercise in Orbit
Two satellites will engage in a “realistic threat response scenario” when Victus Haze gets underway.
Stephen Clark, Ars Technica
Elon Musk’s Latest Mars Pitch Has Potential
SpaceX has made significant progress toward what once seemed an unattainable goal.
Eric Berger, Ars Technica
How One Corporation Is Cashing In on America’s Drought
In an unprecedented deal, a private company purchased land in a tiny Arizona town—and sold its water rights to a suburb 200 miles away. Local residents fear the agreement has “opened Pandora’s box.”
Maanvi Singh
Mexico City’s Metro System Is Sinking Fast. Yours Could Be Next
Subsidence is causing parts of Mexico City to sink, and it’s happening at an uneven rate. That’s bad news for its sprawling public transportation system.
Matt Simon
The Honeybees Versus the Murder Hornets
Under threat from murder hornets, climate change, and habitat loss, UK honeybees are getting help from AI-enabled apiculturists tracking everything from foraging patterns to foreign invaders.
Frankie Adkins
Why the East Coast Earthquake Covered So Much Ground
Friday morning's earthquake was felt from New York City all the way to Washington, DC. Blame ancient fault lines and bedrock for the jolt.
Matt Simon
The White House Has a New Master Plan to Stop Worst-Case Scenarios
President Joe Biden has updated the directives to protect US critical infrastructure against major threats, from cyberattacks to terrorism to climate change.
Eric Geller
The Uncomfortable Truth About the UK’s Climate Policies
Britain’s former climate adviser says the country’s future plans are weak, climate protests are no longer helpful, and working closely with Big Oil is a jarring necessity.
Matt Reynolds
1 in 3 Americans Live in Areas With Dangerous Air Pollution
Climate change is increasing the number of days people are exposed to hazardous pollution, affecting already disadvantaged communities the most.
Victoria St. Martin
Green Roofs Are Great. Blue-Green Roofs Are Even Better
Amsterdam is experimenting with roofs that not only grow plants but capture water for a building’s residents. Welcome to the squeezable sponge city of tomorrow.
Matt Simon
The Best Portable Power Stations
Whether you are going off-grid or safeguarding against blackouts, these beefy, WIRED-tested batteries can keep the lights on.
Simon Hill and Scott Gilbertson
It Takes Guts, Not College, to Fix Wind Turbines for a Living
Want one of the fastest-growing jobs in the US? Get used to being high.
Caitlin Kelly
One Couple's Quest to Ditch Natural Gas
Two climate journalists decided to decarbonize their home. Here's what happened.
Tik Root
The Next Heat Pump Frontier? NYC Apartment Windows
New heat pumps easily fit over window sills, meaning they could replace clunky apartment air-conditioning units.
Matt Simon
The Mysterious ‘Dark’ Energy That Permeates the Universe Is Slowly Eroding
Physicists call the dark energy that drives the universe “the cosmological constant.” Now the largest map of the cosmos to date hints that this mysterious energy has been changing over billions of years.
Charlie Wood
Here’s a Clever Way to Uncover America’s Voting Deserts
Mathematicians are using topological abstractions to find places poorly served by polling stations.
Lyndie Chiou
The Quest to Map the Inside of the Proton
Long-anticipated experiments that use light to mimic gravity are revealing the distribution of energies, forces, and pressures inside a subatomic particle for the first time.
Charlie Wood
Can You Really Run on Top of a Train, Like in the Movies?
To pull off this classic Hollywood stunt, you gotta know your physics!
Rhett Allain
Doctors Combined a Heart Pump and Pig Kidney Transplant in Breakthrough Surgery
In the first procedure of its kind, a 54-year-old New Jersey woman received a genetically engineered pig kidney and thymus after getting a heart pump.
Emily Mullin
We Finally Know Where Neuralink’s Brain Implant Trial Is Happening
After months of secrecy, Neuralink revealed that the partner site for its brain implant study is the Barrow Neurological Institute.
Emily Mullin
They Experimented on Themselves in Secret. What They Discovered Helped Win a War
The untold, top-secret story of the British researchers who found the key to keeping humans alive underwater—and helped make D-Day a success.
Rachel Lance
The Next Frontier for Brain Implants Is Artificial Vision
Elon Musk’s Neuralink and others are developing devices that could provide blind people with a crude sense of sight.
Emily Mullin
The Atlas Robot Is Dead. Long Live the Atlas Robot
Before the dear old model could even power down, Boston Dynamics unleashed a stronger new Atlas robot that can move in ways us puny humans never can.
Carlton Reid
Meet the Next Generation of Doctors—and Their Surgical Robots
Don't worry, your next surgeon will definitely be a human. But just as medical students are training to use a scalpel, they're also training to use robots designed to make surgeries easier.
Neha Mukherjee
AI Is Building Highly Effective Antibodies That Humans Can’t Even Imagine
Robots, computers, and algorithms are hunting for potential new therapies in ways humans can’t—by processing huge volumes of data and building previously unimagined molecules.
Amit Katwala
This Artificial Muscle Moves Stuff on Its Own
Actuators inspired by cucumber plants could make robots move more naturally in response to their environments, or be used for devices in inhospitable places.
Max G. Levy
Scientists Are Unlocking the Secrets of Your ‘Little Brain’
The cerebellum is responsible for far more than coordinating movement. New techniques reveal that it is, in fact, a hub of sensory and emotional processing in the brain.
R Douglas Fields
Meet the Designer Behind Neuralink’s Surgical Robot
Afshin Mehin has helped design some of the most futuristic neurotech devices.
Emily Mullin
Are You Noise Sensitive? Here's How to Tell
Every person has a different idea of what makes noise “loud,” but there are some things we all can do to turn the volume down a little.
Amy Paturel
Why You Hear Voices in Your White Noise Machine
If you've ever heard music, voices, or other sounds while trying to sleep with a white noise machine running, you're not losing your mind. Here's what's going on.
Jennifer Billock
Latest
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Environmental Damage Could Cost You a Fifth of Your Income Over the Next 25 Years
John Timmer, Ars Technica
Climate Justice
Europe Rules That Insufficient Climate Change Action Is a Human Rights Violation
Chris Baraniuk
citizen science
How Will the Solar Eclipse Affect Animals? NASA Needs Your Help to Find Out
Geraldine Castro
Tip of the Iceberg
These Women Came to Antarctica for Science. Then the Predators Emerged
David Kushner
trashosphere
International Space Station Trash May Have Hit This Florida House
Stephen Clark, Ars Technica