Science
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Saunas Are the Next Frontier in Fighting Depression
The preliminary results of a clinical trial of using heat exposure to combat depression are in—and are fueling cautious optimism that sauna practice could become an accepted treatment.
Max G. Levy
The First Person to Receive a Pig Kidney Transplant Has Died
The hospital that carried out the procedure two months prior says there’s “no indication” that the transplant was related to his death.
Emily Mullin
These Artificial Blood Platelets Could One Day Save Lives
Platelets help blood clot, but they have a short shelf life. With blood in short supply, synthetic platelets could help meet demand.
Emily Mullin
How Not to Get Brain-Eating Worms and Mercury Poisoning
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had both a brain parasite and mercury poisoning at the same time. Just how rare is each condition?
David Cox
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
NASA’s Quest to Touch the Sun
The outer layers of the sun’s atmosphere are a blistering million degrees hotter than its surface. NASA sent a probe to find out why—by getting closer to the star than ever before.
Thomas Zurbuchen
The Northern Lights Could Be Visible Across the US Thanks to a Rare Solar Storm
Three bursts of charged particles ejected from the sun have merged into a wave that could lead to brilliant auroras being visible from Moscow to Oklahoma City.
Dennis Mersereau
Boeing’s Starliner Is Almost Ready to Launch a NASA Crew Into Space
Seven years behind schedule, this month Starliner will send two astronauts to space on a mission for NASA. The troubled company still has lots of catching up to do.
Jonathan O'Callaghan
An Old Abstract Field of Math Is Unlocking the Deep Complexity of Spacecraft Orbits
Mathematicians think abstract tools from a field called symplectic geometry might help with planning missions to far-off moons and planets.
Leila Sloman
In Defense of Parasitic Worms
Nature can’t run without parasites, and climate change is driving some to extinction. What happens when they start to disappear?
Jesse Nichols
The Earth Is About to Feast on Dead Cicadas
Two cicada broods, XIX and XIII, are emerging in sync for the first time in 221 years. They’re bringing the banquet of a lifetime for birds, trees, and humans alike.
Celia Ford
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
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
Climate Protesters Storm Tesla’s Gigafactory in Europe
The carmaker’s only European gigafactory has become the target of increasingly radical protests since announcing expansion plans.
Morgan Meaker
City Trees Save Lives
Green spaces significantly cool our ever-hotter cities. New research suggests more trees could cut heat-related ER visits in LA by up to two-thirds.
Matt Simon
The One Thing That’s Holding Back the Heat Pump
It’s not the technology itself. It’s that we don’t yet have enough trained workers to install heat pumps for full-tilt decarbonization.
Matt Simon
Get Ready for Monster Hurricanes This Summer
Scientists are forecasting 11 North Atlantic hurricanes this year, five of them being major. Here’s what’s turning the storms into increasingly dangerous behemoths.
Matt Simon
Inside the Climate Protests Hell-Bent on Stopping Tesla
Tesla’s gigafactory in Germany has temporarily paused production as protests ramp up.
Morgan Meaker
A Company Is Building a Giant Compressed-Air Battery in the Australian Outback
Hydrostor, a leader in compressed-air energy storage, aims to break ground on a 200-MW plant in New South Wales by the end of this year. It wants to follow that with a 500-MW facility in California.
Dan Gearino
What Kind of Battery Would You Need to Power a Lightsaber?
On Star Wars Day, we use some basic physics to measure the power of the Force. It’s strong!
Rhett Allain
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
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
Elon Musk’s Neuralink Had a Brain Implant Setback. It May Come Down to Design
Neuralink experienced a mechanical issue with its first human brain-computer interface implant. Its novel design may make it more prone to failure.
Emily Mullin
The US Is Cracking Down on Synthetic DNA
Synthetic DNA could be used to spark a pandemic. A move by President Biden aims to create new standards for the safety and security of mail-order genetic material.
Emily Mullin
China Has a Controversial Plan for Brain-Computer Interfaces
China's brain-computer interface technology is catching up to the US. But it envisions a very different use case: cognitive enhancement.
Emily Mullin
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
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
heads up
NASA Confirms Where the Space Junk That Hit a Florida House Came From
Stephen Clark, Ars Technica
Book Excerpt
They Experimented on Themselves in Secret. What They Discovered Helped Win a War
Rachel Lance