Astronomy
A 3-D model of the Cat’s Eye nebula shows rings sculpted by jets
The Cat’s Eye is one of the most complex nebulae known. A 3-D reconstruction reveals the source of some of that complexity.
-
Cover Story
Louis Pasteur’s devotion to truth transformed what we know about health and disease
Two centuries after his birth, Louis Pasteur's work on pasteurization, germ theory and vaccines is as relevant as ever.
Science Visualized
Notebook
Humans
Here’s where jazz gets its swing
Swing, the feeling of a rhythm in jazz music that compels feet to tap, may arise from near-imperceptible delays in musicians’ timing, a study shows.
Features
-
‘Forever chemicals’ may pose a bigger risk to our health than scientists thought
PFAS are linked to obesity, cancers and more. Growing evidence of the chemicals’ risks has prompted new guidance for safe drinking water and consumer testing.
More Stories from the November 19, 2022 issue
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, a ‘cure’ for intoxication showed promise
In 1972, vitamin and chemical injections reduced the amount of time that rats fed alcohol spent drunk. The science has yet to pan out for people.
- Animals
After eons of isolation, these desert fish flub social cues
Pahrump poolfish flunked a fear test, but maybe they’re scared of other things.
- Health & Medicine
False teeth could double as hearing aids
Dental implants can conduct sound through jawbone, making them candidates for discreet, high-quality hearing aids, researchers say.
- Astronomy
Meet the BOAT, the brightest gamma-ray burst of all time
Probably triggered by a supernova in a remote galaxy, the burst detected on October 9 could challenge theories about these brilliant blasts.
- Health & Medicine
A study questioning colonoscopy screening’s benefits has big caveats
The study included a lot of people who were invited to get the procedure but didn’t. That’s one limitation of several.
- Physics
Protons may be stretchier than physics predicts
Studying how quarks inside protons move in response to electric fields shows that protons seem to stretch more than theory says they should.
- Science & Society
Why fuzzy definitions are a problem in the social sciences
Social sciences research is plagued by murky definitions and measurements. Here’s why that matters.
- Astronomy
Most stars may have much more time to form planets than previously thought
Planet-making disks may survive around most young stars for 5 million to 10 million years — more than double a previous estimate.
- Environment
Heat waves in U.S. rivers are on the rise. Here’s why that’s a problem
In recent years, heat waves in U.S. rivers have gotten more frequent, causing trouble for fish, plants and water quality.
- Climate
Here’s what happened to the Delaware-sized iceberg that broke off Antarctica
The powerful pull of currents in the Southern Ocean probably pulled apart the largest remnant of a massive iceberg that split off Antarctica in 2017.
- Animals
Mountain lions pushed out by wildfires take more risks
A study tracking mountain lions showed that after an intense burn, the big cats crossed roads more often, raising the risk of becoming roadkill.
- Paleontology
Dinosaur ‘mummies’ may not be rare flukes after all
Bite marks on a fossilized dinosaur upend the idea that exquisite skin preservation must result from a carcass's immediate smothering under sediment.
- Genetics
Black Death immunity came at a cost to modern-day health
A genetic variant that boosts Crohn’s disease risk may have helped people survive the 14th century bubonic plague known as the Black Death.
- Animals
Honeybees order numbers from left to right, a study claims
In experiments, bees tend to go to smaller numbers on the left, larger ones on the right. But the idea of a mental number line in animals has critics.
