Why aren’t mammals as colorful as reptiles, birds, and fish?
Lizards, birds, and fish often have bright colors ranging from neon pink to deep purple, while most mammals are quite dull. So why don’t mammals match the bright colors of other animals? Many factors ultimately lead to the browns, blacks, and whites that make up the fur of most mammals. The first is color expression. […]
Huge 3D map of the universe shows a glowing ‘ocean of light’ near cosmic dawn
Astronomers have created one of the most accurate and comprehensive maps of the universe ever created, revealing a glorious “ocean of light” that permeated the early universe. Unlike other universal maps, this 3D representation consists of light emitted by a single element. Hydrogen is the simplest and most abundant element in the universe, and when […]
‘It could completely revolutionize the treatment of depression’: Researchers explore promising immunotherapy to treat psychiatric symptoms
I was really surprised. When psychiatrist Dr. James Murrow teamed up with dermatologist Dr. Emma Gutman-Yaskey to investigate how the immune system contributes to depression, he didn’t expect to find a promising treatment. In a study published in February in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, Murrow, Guttmann-Yassky and colleagues uncovered similarities in the immune systems of […]
‘Warming trends have almost doubled since 2014’: The rate of global warming has accelerated more than ever in the past decade
The rate of global warming has accelerated since 2015, faster than in any decade since records began in 1880, according to a new study that filters out the background “noise” of natural change. But not everyone agrees with the paper’s findings. In the study, published Friday (March 6) in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, researchers […]
How Anthropic’s safety-first ethos collided with the Department of Defense
On February 5th, Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.6, its most powerful artificial intelligence model. New features of this model include the ability to coordinate teams of autonomous agents (multiple AIs that divide work and complete it in parallel). Twelve days after the release of Opus 4.6, the company released Sonnet 4.6, a cheaper model that […]
Why is mercury a liquid?
We tend to think of metals as hard, strong, and resistant to high temperatures. Look at iron, aluminum, steel. While this is generally true, there is one important exception: mercury. Mercury has a melting point of -37.9 degrees Fahrenheit (-38.8 degrees Celsius) and is one of only two elements that are liquid at room temperature. […]
Ancient ‘alien-like’ skulls have been found on every continent but Antarctica. Anthropologists are starting to figure out why.
When the Spanish first reached the Andes, they found something surprising: Many of the locals had long, pointy heads. They discovered that the Collagua, an indigenous group in Peru that was conquered by the Inca, had a practice of shaping the head starting in infancy, before the skull bones fused and soft spots disappeared. The […]
The first general production of sodium-ion battery cars has the potential to revolutionize EVs forever
A Chinese automaker has unveiled the world’s first sodium-ion (Na-ion) electric vehicle (EV), opening the door to safer battery technology and improved cold-weather performance. The Changan Nevo A06 is jointly produced by Changan Automobile and Hyundai Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. (CATL), the world’s largest battery manufacturer. The car, also known as Qiyuan A06 in the […]
Groundbreaking new drug shows promise in treating children with severe epilepsy
A new drug has been shown to reduce seizures in children with a rare and severe form of epilepsy called Dravet syndrome by up to 90% by addressing the underlying genetic mutation that causes the disease. This finding came from an early-stage trial that was not designed to show efficacy, so it is not yet […]
Sword in the Sea: How one lucky graduate student found a second Crusader sword while swimming off the coast of Israel
A Crusader-era sword had been buried in sand and barnacles for centuries on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, until a university student discovered its handle poking out from the ocean floor. Shlomi Katsin, a graduate student at Haifa University’s Department of Marine Civilization, said she saw a group of divers with metal detectors while swimming and feared […]