The sun just celebrated its first “clean day” in four years, but we still don’t know for sure.
After nearly four years of being covered in dark spots like an acne-covered teenager, Sun’s face suddenly becomes smoother day after day, suggesting that solar activity is decreasing. But while this stunning “unspotted” scene is a sign of things to come, experts warn it’s too early to let our guard down. On Sunday (February 22), […]
Inherited diseases don’t work like we thought they did
For decades, scientists have delved into the genetic causes of disease by studying patients with those diseases and their families, picking through their genomes in search of genetic mutations that could be the cause. It’s a method that has turned up hundreds of mutations, many thought to be responsible for diseases in almost 100% of […]
“I’m not lying. So who are you?”: What happens when a DNA test shows that a woman is not the mother of the child she gave birth to?
DNA is considered the ultimate indicator of our identity. This is a surefire way to determine our origins and connections to our parents and previous generations of our family. But in this excerpt from Hidden Guests: Migrated Cells and How the New Science of Microchimerism Is Redefining Human Identity (Greystone Books, 2025), author and science […]
History of Science: Discovery of Carbon-14 Opens Window on Past Civilizations — February 27, 1940
Milestone: Discovery of carbon-14 Date: February 27, 1940 Location: Berkeley, California People: Martin Kamen and Samuel Ruben On this day in 1940, two scientists discovered an elusive form of carbon, inadvertently opening a window to a lost civilization. Since the mid-1930s, scientists have predicted the existence of carbon with two extra neutrons in its core, […]
Humans and Neanderthals interbred, but research reveals that it was primarily male Neanderthals and female humans who combined
When Neanderthals and modern humans first came together, they preferred a combination of Neanderthal males and human females, a new study of ancient and modern genomes suggests. The discovery helps explain why modern humans (Homo sapiens) have relatively low levels of Neanderthal genes, and why those genes are found in some populations today but not […]
‘Revolutionary’: Vera C. Rubin Observatory discovers 800,000 interesting objects in one night
The newly commissioned Vera C. Rubin Observatory issued 800,000 astronomical alerts in just one night. This is a staggering number of nighttime discoveries and is expected to increase almost tenfold by the end of this year. Representatives from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) said in a statement that the telescope, which scans the entire […]
Mars’ giant ‘spider web’ has tiny egg-like structures, scientists say ‘cannot be fully explained’, NASA probe reveals
NASA’s Curiosity rover has taken stunning new photos of a giant “spider web” zigzagging across the surface of Mars. One of these images revealed a never-before-seen egg-like spheroid covering a vast structure. Scientists have a hard time explaining them. For the past eight months, Curiosity has been scrutinizing a series of interconnected rock ridges known […]
New observations of Apollo moon rocks solve decades-old mystery about the moon’s magnetic field
For decades, debate has raged over whether the moon ever had a strong magnetic field or whether it was always weak. Now, a new analysis of Apollo-era moon rocks suggests that the moon’s magnetic field may be mostly weak despite brief bursts of strong activity, potentially solving the mystery for good. The study, published Thursday […]
In the Roman Empire, babies were not to be mourned. These unusual liquid plaster burials prove otherwise.
The Roman mystical burial ritual of pouring liquid plaster on the dead was not limited to elite adults, as previously thought. Researchers found that it was also performed on children, including infants as young as 1 month old. According to two blog posts published by Seeing the Dead, a joint project between the University of […]
Chinese astronaut talks about the moment a crack was discovered in Shenzhou 20
Chinese astronauts have described what happened last year when debris believed to be space debris crashed into their return capsule and nearly stranded them in space. The crew members of the ill-fated Shenzhou 20 mission, Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, and Wang Jie, were preparing to depart China’s Tiangong Space Station and return to Earth on […]