Smart underwear measures farts, brain cells play Doom, and AI discovers rules of an ancient game. It’s a regrettable reality that there is never enough time to cover all the interesting scientific stories we come across each month. So every month, we highlight a handful of the best stories…
Some creatures can dramatically alter their internal temperature and outlast storms, floods and, predators In 1774, British physician-scientist Charles Blagden received an unusual invitation from a fellow physician: to spend time in a small room that was hotter, he wrote, “than it was formerly thought any living creature could…
Interactions between neighboring materials is mediated by virtual photons. Despite the headline, this isn’t really a story about superconductivity—at least not the superconductivity that people care about, the stuff that doesn’t require exotic refrigeration to work. Instead, it’s a story about how superconductivity can be used as a test…
“Neanderthal deserts” in our genomes suggest a strong pattern in matings. By now, it’s firmly established that modern humans and their Neanderthal relatives met and mated as our ancestors expanded out of Africa, resulting in a substantial amount of Neanderthal DNA scattered throughout our genome. Less widely recognized is…
Geometry of tread patterns determines frequency, so blocks were designed to play Star Wars music. We’re all familiar with the high-pitched squeak of basketball shoes on the court during games, or tires squealing on pavement. Scientists conducted several experiments and discovered that the geometry of the sneakers’ tread patterns…
Officials expect the investigation into a booster anomaly on ULA’s Vulcan rocket to last multiple months. DENVER—The Global Positioning System is one of the few space programs that touches nearly every human life, and the stewards of the satellite navigation network are eager to populate the fleet with the…
Spare a thought for the intrepid graduate students who spent last summer in Africa collecting chimp urine. The urine of chimpanzees contains high levels of alcohol byproduct, most likely because the chimps regularly gorge themselves on fermented fruit, according to a new paper published in the journal Biology Letters.…
Coal makes a bit of a comeback, if only by accident. On Tuesday, the US Energy Information Administration released full-year data on how the country generated electricity in 2025. It’s a bit of a good news/bad news situation. The bad news is that overall demand rose appreciably, and a…
Micro-cracks travel along the peeling tape at supersonic speeds, producing shock waves and sound pulses. Scotch tape has been a household mainstay for nearly a century, but it still holds some scientific surprises. Researchers have discovered that the screeching sound emitted when one rapidly peels Scotch tape—akin to the…
“The point is to get missions out the door as fast as possible. Two to three years is too slow.” DALLAS—The Space Force officer tasked with overseeing more than $24 billion in research and development spending says the Pentagon is more interested in supporting startups building new space sensors…
