We don’t drift off to sleep; we suddenly fall into slumber DedMityay/Shutterstock The brain doesn’t gradually fall asleep. Instead, it reaches a tipping point at which it rapidly transitions from wakefulness to sleep in a matter of minutes – a discovery that could improve our understanding and treatment of sleep disorders like insomnia. “Although sleep…
A Citroen Racing Formula E car during pre-season testing ahead of the 2025-26 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship Independent Photo Agency/Alamy With their sleek lines, smoking tyres and thunderous engines, Formula 1 cars have been the fastest road vehicles for the past 50 years. But electric vehicles may soon become the quickest on Earth,…
Aerial view of Nabuyatom crater south of Lake Turkana, Kenya Martin Harvey/Alamy A drying climate in East Africa reduced the amount of water in Kenya’s Lake Turkana over thousands of years, which unleashed earthquakes and volcanoes from underneath it. This hazard of climate change could eventually affect other bodies of water around the world as…
“This year, the Leonid meteor shower is timed almost perfectly with a new moon…” WALTER PACHOLKA, ASTROPICS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY There is something magical about watching a meteor shower. Part of this is down to the shower’s unpredictability – the conditions can appear perfect, yet you may still end up underwhelmed, especially when you are promised…
Aerial photo of the Band of Holes in Monte Sierpe, Peru J.L. Bongers A hillside in Peru covered by more than 5000 aligned holes may have been a giant Inca accounting device – a spreadsheet, but on a monumental scale. Tracing across the slopes of Monte Sierpe (Serpent Mountain) in a snake-like shape, the “Band…
November 8, 2025 4 min read The Slop Cycle—How Every Media Revolution Breeds Rubbish and Art The popularization of the term “slop” for AI output follows a centuries-long pattern where new tools flood the zone, audiences adapt and some of tomorrow’s art emerges from today’s excess By Deni Ellis Béchard edited by Clara Moskowitz Old…
November 6, 2025 4 min read Why Drugs Like Ozempic Can Make People Drink Less Alcohol A small study helps explain why some people taking Wegovy and similar weight-loss drugs cut back on alcohol, offering insight into potential new addiction therapies By Lauren J. Young edited by Tanya Lewis Maria Korneeva/Getty Images Some people taking…
November 8, 2025 2 min read Rubin Observatory Discovers Surprise ‘Tail’ on Iconic Galaxy The first image from the Vera C. Rubin telescope reveals a previously unnoticed feature of the galaxy M61 that may explain its mysterious properties By Jenna Ahart & Nature magazine Galaxy M61 sports a long stellar stream, which had not been…
For astronomers, the sky isn’t exactly falling—yet the sky-high ambitions of tech companies seeking profits in Earth orbit and beyond are becoming too disruptive to ignore. SpaceX’s Starlink Internet service, built with thousands of telescope-photobombing satellites, is the poster child for this problematic trend, but it’s not alone. The latest start-up with brash out-of-this-world plans…
November 7, 2025 2 min read This Cave Holds a Spider Web ‘Megacity’ the Size of Half a Tennis Court This finding is the first documented case of colonial behavior between two solitary species of spider By Humberto Basilio edited by Andrea Thompson Lights illuminate a massive spider web found in a cave on the…
