Anthropology
‘First Steps’ shows how bipedalism led humans down a strange evolutionary path
In a new book, a paleoanthropologist argues that walking upright has had profound effects on human anatomy and behavior.
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Cover Story
Capturing the sense of touch could upgrade prosthetics and our digital lives
Haptics researchers are working on ways to add touch to virtual reality, online shopping, telemedicine and advanced artificial limbs.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Humans
New depictions of ancient hominids aim to overcome artistic biases
Artists’ intuition instead of science drive most facial reconstructions of extinct species. Some researchers hope to change that.
Notebook
Health & Medicine
50 years ago, scientists claimed marijuana threatened teens’ mental health
In the 1970s, scientists linked pot use to mental health woes in teens. Such concerns have helped keep the drug illegal for teens for 50 years.
Features
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Videocalling needed more than a pandemic to finally take off. Will it last?
Zoom and social distancing ushered in the futuristic videophone fantasy AT&T wanted and consumers rejected for decades.
More Stories from the April 24, 2021 issue
- Health & Medicine
Redefining ‘flesh-colored’ bandages makes medicine more inclusive
Peach-colored bandages label dark-skinned patients as outside the norm, says med student Linda Oyesiku. Brown bandages expand who gets to be normal.
- Physics
Uranium ‘snowflakes’ could set off thermonuclear explosions of dead stars
Uranium crystals that settle in the cores of white dwarfs could trigger nuclear chain reactions that blow the dead stars apart, a new study suggests.
- Paleontology
An ancient shark’s weird fins helped it glide like a manta ray
Nicknamed eagle shark, the newly discovered ancient creature achieved underwater flight 30 million years before the first rays.
- Archaeology
A tour of ‘Four Lost Cities’ reveals modern ties to ancient people
In the book 'Four Lost Cities,' author Annalee Newitz uses cities of the past to show what might happen to cities in the future.
- Astronomy
A new black hole image reveals the behemoth’s magnetic fields
A new analysis of Event Horizon Telescope data from 2017 brings to light the magnetic fields twisted around the black hole at the core of galaxy M87.
- Animals
A toxin behind mysterious eagle die-offs may have finally been found
A 20-year study of water weeds and cyanobacteria in the southern United States pinpoints a bird-killing toxin, and it's not your usual suspect.
- Astronomy
Here’s why humans chose particular groups of stars as constellations
Distances between stars, their brightnesses and patterns of human eye movement explain why particular sets of stars tend to be grouped together.
- Archaeology
Stone Age culture bloomed inland, not just along Africa’s coasts
Homo sapiens living more than 600 kilometers from the coast around 105,000 years ago collected crystals that may have had ritual meaning.
- Health & Medicine
Frog skin cells turned themselves into living machines
The “xenobots” can swim, navigate tubes, move particles into piles and even heal themselves after injury, a new study reports.
- Ecosystems
How kelp forests off California are responding to an urchin takeover
A pair of studies reports 95 percent loss of kelp forests along the northern coast while sea otters are helping maintain surviving kelp farther south.
- Animals
Octopus sleep includes a frenzied, colorful, ‘active’ stage
Four wild cephalopods snoozing in a lab had long stretches of quiet napping followed by brief bursts of REM-like sleep.
- Astronomy
The ‘USS Jellyfish’ emits strange radio waves from a distant galaxy cluster
The unusual pattern of radio waves dubbed the USS Jellyfish tells a story of intergalactic gas meeting black hole by-products.
- Life
A plant gene may have helped whiteflies become a major pest
An agricultural pest may owe part of its success to a plant detox gene it acquired long ago that lets the insect neutralize common defenses.
- Animals
A gene defect may make rabbits do handstands instead of hop
Mutations in a gene typically found throughout the nervous system rob rabbits of their ability to hop. Instead, the animals walk on their front paws.
