The Science Life
- Space
A telescope dropped dark matter data from the edge of space. Here’s why
Last May, NASA’s Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope crash-landed in rural Argentina. Scientists scrambled to recover the dark matter data aboard.
- Animals
This bird hasn’t been seen in 38 years. Its song may help track it down
Using bioacoustics, South American scientists are eavesdropping on a forest in hopes of hearing the song of the long-missing purple-winged ground dove.
- Science & Society
Reindeer herders and scientists collaborate to understand Arctic warming
Siberian reindeer herders and scientists are working together to figure out how to predict rain-on-snow events that turn tundra into deadly ice.
- Math
An enduring Möbius strip mystery has finally been solved
Playing with paper and scissors helped one mathematician figure out just how short the twisted loops can be.
- Planetary Science
How drones are helping scientists find meteorites
Searching for fallen space rocks is labor intensive. A team of researchers in Australia is speeding things up with drones and machine learning.
- Animals
Some African birds follow nomadic ants to their next meal
Specialized interactions between birds and driver ants in Africa could help explain why the birds are especially sensitive to forest disturbances.
- Archaeology
Indigenous input revealed early hints of fiber making in the tropics
To decipher marks on nearly 40,000-year-old stone tools and figure out what they were used for, researchers turned to the Philippines’ Pala’wan people.
- Tech
How understanding horses could inspire more trustworthy robots
Computer scientist Eakta Jain pioneered the study of how human-horse interactions could help improve robot design and shape human-robot interactions.
- Plants
A hunt for fungi might bring this orchid back from the brink
Identifying the fungi that feeds the Cooper’s black orchid in the lab may allow researchers to bank seeds and possibly regrow the species in the wild.
- Animals
This marine biologist is on a mission to save endangered rays
Jessica Pate and the Florida Manta Project confirm that endangered mantas are mating and sicklefin devils are migrating along the East Coast.
- Plants
Ultrasound reveals trees’ drought-survival secrets
Scientists used ultrasound sensors and electrical probes to reveal how drought affects the tissues of living trees.
- Math
Here’s a peek into the mathematics of black holes
The universe tells us slowly rotating black holes are stable. A nearly 1,000-page proof confirms it.
