Humans
‘Period’ wants to change how you think about menstruation
Kate Clancy offers fascinating science and history about the uterus and menstruation in her book, Period: The Real Story of Menstruation.
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Cover Story
How an Indigenous community in Panama is escaping rising seas
The Indigenous Guna peoples' relocation from Panama could offer lessons for other communities threatened by climate change.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Astronomy
Newborn stars sculpt their galaxies in new James Webb telescope images
Dark voids riddle the galaxies’ faces, highlighting previously invisible details about how new stars alter their locales.
Notebook
Tech
50 years ago, a balloon circumnavigated the world for science
A 1973 high-altitude flight kicked off an era of useful stratospheric balloon science. Some scientists worry that heightened concerns over alleged spy balloons might hamper that.
Features
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How ChatGPT and similar AI will disrupt education
The new chatbot ChatGPT and other generative AI encourage cheating and offer up incorrect info, but they could also be used for good.
More Stories from the April 8, 2023 issue
- Life
Plant/animal hybrid proteins could help crops fend off diseases
Pikobodies, bioengineered proteins that are part plant and part animal (thanks, llamas), loan plant immune systems a uniquely animal trait: flexibility.
- Animals
The fastest claw in the sea belongs to young snapping shrimp
When juveniles snap their claws shut to create imploding bubbles, they create the fastest accelerating underwater movements of any reusable body part.
- Tech
A trick inspired by Hansel and Gretel could help rovers explore other worlds
Taking a cue from a classic fairy tale, scientists propose a way for rovers to send back data from treacherous terrain.
- Astronomy
Half of all active satellites are now from SpaceX. Here’s why that may be a problem
Of the roughly 7,300 active satellites in Earth orbit, about 3,600 are part of SpaceX’s growing fleet of Starlink internet satellites.
- Genetics
Why experts recommend ditching racial labels in genetic studies
Racial labels don’t explain biological and genetic diversity but do cause stigma. They belong “in the dustbin of history,” a panel of experts says.
- Health & Medicine
My mammogram revealed I have dense breasts. What does that mean?
Nearly half of U.S. women have dense breasts. A new FDA rule makes notification of breast density national. Here’s the scoop on why.
- Neuroscience
In mice, anxiety isn’t all in the head. It can start in the heart
Scientists used optogenetics to raise the heartbeat of a mouse, making it anxious. The finding could offer a new angle for studying anxiety disorders.
- Planetary Science
A volcano on Venus was spotted erupting in decades-old images
A new look at old data reveals an eruption on Venus in the 1990s that was probably similar to Hawaii’s Kilauea eruption in 2018.
- Archaeology
The Yamnaya may have been the world’s earliest known horseback riders
5,000-year-old Yamnaya skeletons show physical signs of horseback riding, hinting that they may be the earliest known humans to do so.
- Archaeology
Homo sapiens may have brought archery to Europe about 54,000 years ago
Small stone points found in a French rock-shelter could have felled prey only as tips of arrows shot from bows, scientists say.
- Archaeology
Some monkeys accidentally make stone flakes that resemble ancient hominid tools
A study of Thailand macaques raises questions about whether some Stone Age cutting tools were products of planning or chance.
- Paleontology
520-million-year-old animal fossils might not be animals after all
Newly described fossils of Protomelission gatehousei suggest that the species, once thought to be the oldest example of bryozoans, is actually a type of colony-forming algae.
- Life
Honeybees waggle to communicate. But to do it well, they need dance lessons
Young honeybees can’t perfect waggling on their own after all. Without older sisters to practice with, youngsters fail to nail distances.
- Animals
What the first look at the genetics of Chernobyl’s dogs revealed
Dogs living in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant industrial area are genetically distinct from other dogs, but scientists don’t yet know if radiation is the reason.
- Climate
How wildfires deplete the Earth’s ozone layer
Scientists detail the chain of chemical reactions that occur when wildfire smoke enters the stratosphere.
- Earth
Earth’s inner core may be more complex than researchers thought
Seismic waves suggest that Earth has a hidden heart, a distinct region within the solid part of the planet’s core.
