A receptor that’s used to find prey is also activated by progesterone. Octopuses are one of the most alien creatures on Earth. The lack of bones makes them amazing shapeshifters, most of them can change color like chameleons, and they pump blue copper-based blood through their bodies using three…
Collection of fossils includes Ediacaran, Cambrian species, suggesting a transition. The details of how animal life began are a bit murky. Most of the groups familiar today are present in the Cambrian, a period when they rapidly diversified, with familiar features evolving alongside bizarre creatures with no obvious modern…
And solar power accounted for about three quarters of the renewables. On Wednesday, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) released its numbers on what was built in 2025. And much as we saw in the US, solar power is the primary driver of change. The numbers show that the…
Sperm gets lost in space; raccoons solve puzzles; the physics of folding a crepe; and more. It’s a regrettable reality that there is never enough time to cover all the interesting scientific stories we come across. So every month, we highlight a handful of the best stories that nearly…
Pair instability supernovae create a “mass gap” in black holes. Many of the early exoplanet discoveries were exciting on their own, confirming that there really were strange new worlds out in the Universe. But over time, our focus has shifted more toward numbers, as we began using the frequency…
Sweden is bringing back books amid declining test scores. In 2023, the Swedish government announced that the country’s schools would be going back to basics, emphasizing skills such as reading and writing, particularly in early grades. After mostly being sidelined, physical books are now being reintroduced into classrooms, and…
“It’ll go when the engines light at T-0.” KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.—Launching to the Moon is an all-day undertaking, something the four astronauts waiting to climb aboard NASA’s Artemis II rocket know well. “It is actually a very long day,” said Victor Glover, the pilot on Artemis II. “We…
“I just don’t want to get caught flat-footed when we start to have to protect US interests out there.” KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida—The US military has always been part of NASA’s human spaceflight program. The first astronauts were nearly all military pilots, and two of the four crew members…
The key is to evenly distribute elderly passengers, who move more slowly, among the aircraft cabins. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires that, in the event of an emergency, all airplane passengers must be able to evacuate any aircraft within a 90-second window. But is that a realistic requirement,…
“Things are certainly starting to feel real here at the Cape.” KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida—The two-day countdown for the launch of NASA’s Artemis II mission began Monday evening, with clocks timed for the first of six opportunities in early April to send a crew of four astronauts around the…
