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Science

News and updates from the science team. Topics include genetics, infectious disease, psychology, and more.

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17 astounding scientific mysteries that researchers can’t yet solve

By Brian Resnick

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Are we breaking the Atlantic Ocean?

By Brian Resnick

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Menstrual fluid’s underexplored medical treasures

By Byrd Pinkerton

IVF is popular — and imperiled

By Aubrey Hirsch

Why did geologists reject the “Anthropocene” epoch? It’s not rock science.

By Sigal Samuel

Is Ozempic an anti-desire drug?

By Brian Resnick

Want to be an astronaut? Step one: Fill out this form.

By Brian Resnick

Alcohol overuse causes 178,000 American deaths annually. Why is it so undertreated?

By Rachel DuRose

Who fakes cancer research? Apparently, lots of people.

By Kelsey Piper
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Space trash lasers, explained

By Coleman Lowndes

Why leap years exist, explained in one simple animation

By Brian Resnick

America’s first moon landing in 50 years, explained

By Li Zhou

Living in an abortion ban state is bad for mental health

By Keren Landman, MD

A war has never been fought in orbit. That may be about to change.

By Tim Fernholz

Scientists strapped cameras to a bunch of polar bears. The footage is breathtaking — and alarming.

By Benji Jones

We have treatments for opioid addiction that work. So why is the problem getting worse?

By Lydialyle Gibson

Beware: A cheese crisis looms

By Benji Jones

2023 was the hottest year on record. It also pushed the world over a dangerous line.

By Umair Irfan

How California’s torrential, life-threatening storms got so bad

By Umair Irfan

The sun’s poles are about to flip. It’s awesome — and slightly terrifying.

By Brian Resnick

The US uses endangered monkeys to test drugs. This law could free them.

By Dayton Martindale

Is this a newborn great white shark? Big if true.

By Benji Jones

Psychedelics are outperforming trauma researchers’ expectations. But why?

By Sigal Samuel

Where billions of cicadas will emerge this spring (and over the next decade), in one map

By Brian Resnick

10 ocean mysteries scientists haven’t solved yet

By Brian Resnick

Astronomers spotted something perplexing near the beginning of time

By Brian Resnick

America is retreating from global health leadership at the worst possible time

By Dylan Scott

Maybe, just maybe, psychedelics are the “master key” for unlocking everything from blindness to stroke to anorexia

By Sigal Samuel

10 actually good things that happened in 2023

By Izzie Ramirez, Oshan Jarow, and 1 more

Feeling a strange sadness over losing snow? That might be solastalgia.

By Anna North

The greenwashing of wool, explained

By Marina Bolotnikova

How mindfulness went mainstream

By Sean Illing

Big Meat just can’t quit antibiotics

By Kenny Torrella

A new approach to measuring what’s going on in our minds

By Oshan Jarow

The weird, bad history of tampon testing

By Anna North

Bird flu is surging again on poultry farms. The US is normalizing the cruelest mass killing method to stop it.

By Marina Bolotnikova

An oil executive is leading the UN climate summit. It’s going as well as you’d expect.

By Li Zhou

Our love of orcas is making them miserable

By Tove K. Danovich

Why psychedelics produce some of the most meaningful experiences in people’s lives

By Oshan Jarow

US life expectancy no longer catastrophic, now merely bad

By Keren Landman, MD

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Christopher Fuchs is revolutionizing how we understand our quantum reality

By Bryan Walsh

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Gul Dolen wants to harness psychedelics for healing

By Sigal Samuel

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David Kaplan is building an academic community for the future of meat

By Kenny Torrella

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