In Defense of the Rat
Suddenly, Franks realized she had another meeting to get to, and here she was in a room full of free-ranging rats. She couldn’t just open the door and leave—rats would …
biology
What Do We Owe the Octopus?
She then gave a painkiller to the octopuses that received the stinging shot and observed that they tended to prefer the chamber in which they got the pain relief. The …
A Lab Just 3D-Printed a Neural Network of Living Brain Cells
A tiny array of microelectrodes underneath the cells recorded electrical activity in the gel surrounding the cells, while other electrodes directly stimulated the neurons and recorded their responses. Using a …
What Will Plants Be Like on Alien Worlds?
Duffy and Haworth speculate that on remote planets, communities of purple bacteria could swell in black sulfurous oceans, or spread in films around local sources of hydrogen sulfide. If they …
How Insect Brains Melt and Rewire During Metamorphosis
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. On warm summer nights, green lacewings flutter around bright lanterns in backyards and at campsites. The insects, with their veil-like …
Sweat Is Helping You Survive Climate Change
The marketing campaign was a lasting success, even a century later. Last year, the global deodorant market was valued at $24 billion, and it’s on track to grow to $37 …
We carry DNA from extinct cousins like Neanderthals. Science is now revealing their genetic legacy
Neanderthals live on within us. These ancient human cousins, and others called Denisovans, once lived alongside our early Homo sapiens ancestors. They mingled and had children. So some of who …
The Secret of How Cells Make ‘Dark Oxygen’ Without Light
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Scientists have come to realize that in the soil and rocks beneath our feet there lies a vast biosphere with …
Science paints a new picture of the ancient past, when we mixed and mated with other kinds of humans
What does it mean to be human? For a long time, the answer seemed clear. Our species, Homo sapiens — with our complex thoughts and deep emotions — were the …
The World’s Largest—and Stinkiest—Flower Is in Danger of Extinction
This story originally appeared in The Guardian and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Parasitic, elusive, and emitting an overwhelming odor of putrefying flesh, Rafflesia—often called the corpse flower—has …