Physicists think they’ve solved the muon mystery

Results dash hopes for a fifth force but provide very precise proof of Standard Model and QFT. Physicists have spent the last 20 years pondering an apparent discrepancy between experimental results and theoretical predictions for the magnetic properties of the muon, the electron’s heavier cousin—a mismatch that hinted at…

Meet Bruce, the “beak-jousting” parrot

Kea parrot missing his upper beak “has rewritten what disability means for behaviorally complex species.” Bruce the kea—a species of alpine parrot native to New Zealand—lost his upper beak in an accident as a young bird. But that hasn’t stopped him from becoming the dominant male in his kea…

Great white sharks are overheating

The sharks might also be the most physiologically vulnerable to warming waters. The evolutionary edge that fueled great white shark dominance for millions of years could soon become its greatest downfall. The ocean’s most iconic predators maintain warmer body temperatures than the surrounding seawater and are paying an increasingly…