Science & Society
Here are 7 new science museums and exhibitions to visit in 2023
The Grand Egyptian Museum is slated to open, as well as new exhibitions dedicated to space travel, the Galápagos Islands and more.
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Cover Story
It’s possible to reach net-zero carbon emissions. Here’s how
Cutting carbon dioxide emissions to curb climate change and reach net zero is possible but not easy.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Materials Science
Want a ‘Shrinky Dinks’ approach to nano-sized devices? Try hydrogels
Patterning hydrogels with a laser and then shrinking them down with chemicals offers a way to make nanoscopic structures out of many materials.
Notebook
Microbes
Meet some of the microbes that give cheeses flavor
Knowing which genus of bacteria is responsible for which flavor could open the door to new types of cheese.
Features
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Carvings on Australia’s boab trees reveal a generation’s lost history
Archaeologists and an Aboriginal family are working together to rediscover a First Nations group’s lost connections to the land.
More Stories from the January 28, 2023 issue
- Humans
50 years ago, scientists debated when humans first set foot in North America
In 1973, archaeologists debated when people first arrived in the Americas. Mounting evidence suggests its much earlier than they thought.
- Animals
Scientists thought snakes didn’t have clitorises. They were wrong
Snakes were long thought to be the only reptile group to lack clitorises. But new findings suggest the sex organs are present after all.
- Life
Sleeping glass frogs hide by storing most of their blood in their liver
Glass frogs snoozing among leaves blend in by hiding almost all their red blood cells in their liver until the tiny animals wake up.
- Physics
We could get messages back from spacecraft sent through a wormhole
A simulation of a probe sent to the other side of a wormhole shows it could send speedy messages back before the hole closes and the probe is lost.
- Earth
Indigenous people may have created the Amazon’s ‘dark earth’ on purpose
Modern Amazonians make nutrient-rich soil from ash, food scraps and burns. The soil strongly resembles ancient dark soils found in the region.
- Planetary Science
The last vital ingredient for life has been discovered on Enceladus
The underground ocean on Saturn’s icy moon may contain phosphorus in concentrations thousands of times greater than those found in Earth’s ocean.
- Paleontology
Mysterious ichthyosaur graveyard may have been a breeding ground
Some 230 million years ago, massive dolphinlike reptiles gathered to breed in safe waters — just like many modern whales do, a study finds.
- Archaeology
Complex supply chains may have appeared more than 3,000 years ago
Finds from one of the world’s oldest shipwrecks hint that miners in Central Asia and Turkey provided a crucial metal to Mediterranean rulers.
- Science & Society
Pandemic languishing is a thing. But is it a privilege?
Positive psychologists contend that people can flourish if they try hard enough. But this pinnacle of well-being might not be so fully in our control.
- Astronomy
A bizarre gamma-ray burst breaks the rules for these cosmic eruptions
The 50-second gamma-ray burst is the first that unambiguously breaks the rule that long bursts usually come from supernovas.
- Paleontology
Katydids had the earliest known insect ears 160 million years ago
Fossils from the Jurassic Period show katydid ears looked identical to those of modern katydids and could pick up short-range calls.
- Astronomy
How the James Webb telescope’s glances back in time are reshaping cosmology
The observatory has found dozens of galaxies from less than 550 million years after the Big Bang, suggesting galaxies formed faster than once thought.
