The trillions of microscopic bacteria that reside in our gut have an outsized role in our health THOM LEACH/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY We often hear talk of things being good for our microbiome, and in turn, good for our health. But it wasn’t entirely clear what a healthy gut microbiome consisted of. Now, a study of…
Lima, Peru — Bats have become the latest mammals susceptible to H5N1, the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus responsible for bird flu. In Peru, over a dozen vampire bats have been found carrying H5N1 antibodies, indicating exposure to the virus, researchers report November 11 at bioRxiv.org. The finding is “very worrisome,” says Vincent Munster, a…
One of NASA’s workhorse spacecraft in orbit around Mars has fallen silent, leaving agency personnel scrambling to troubleshoot the issue. The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission launched in November 2013 and has been operating at the Red Planet since September 2014. Like many NASA missions, MAVEN has lasted well beyond its original design…
In physics, breakthroughs are rare. Experiments are slow, expensive and often end up refining, rather than rewriting, our understanding of the universe. But what if the only constraint on scientific ambition were imagination? We asked five physicists to describe the kind of experiment they would do if they didn’t have to worry about budgets, engineering…
Four hundred thousand years ago, near a water hole on grasslands bordering a forest in what is now southern England, a group of Neandertals struck chunks of iron pyrite against flint to create sparks, lighting campfires on multiple occasions. A new analysis of those remnants — including fire-striking tools and geochemical traces of the burns…
On May 10, 2024, a John Deere dealer sent out a strange press release. “Please be advised that there is significant solar flare and space weather activity,” it read. The company, a maker of tractors and ball caps, isn’t the first entity you’d turn to for advice about the sun. But the star’s storms were…
Instagram has warned under 16s that their accounts will be closed Stringer/AFP via Getty Images Australia’s unprecedented ban on social media for under 16s has finally come into force, but day one of the new law has revealed some teething problems, including the fact that some children have managed to outsmart age-verification technology designed to…
December 9, 2025 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Black Hole Caught Blasting Matter into Space at 130 Million MPH X-ray space telescopes caught a supermassive blackhole flinging matter into space at a fifth of the speed of light By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanna Bryner And illustration shows the black hole within…
Juan Maria Coy Vergara/Getty Images Karl Lemström trudged down the mountain, frozen and exhausted. It had taken him 4 hours to hike to the summit and several more to defrost and fix his apparatus. It would take another 4 hours to get home on foot through the snow, a gruelling journey he had made every…
December 9, 2025 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Pompeii Time Capsule Reveals Secrets to Durable Ancient Roman Cement Lime granules trapped in ancient walls show Romans relied on a reactive hot-mix method to making concrete that could now inspire modern engineers By Humberto Basilio edited by Andrea Thompson The so-called aqueduct de…
