Human Intelligence Created the Climate Crisis—But It’s Also the Solution Science communicator Hank Green explains how our species’ unique intelligence got us into this climate mess—and how it will help us solve it By Hank Green Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images I spend a lot of time on the Internet; it’s become my second home in the…
As technology progressed, humans also got better at passing on skills to others English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images An analysis of more than 3 million years of human evolution shows that communication and technology developed in lockstep. As ancient humans came up with more advanced stone tools and other technologies, they also improved their communication and…
Mice exposed to polystyrene nanoplastics developed problems in their guts and livers. It’s not yet clear if humans are similarly affected.
No one has launched a nuclear weapon in war since 1945, when U.S. president Harry S. Truman bombed Japan. Support for that decision—the only use of atomic arms in a conflict—has decreased over time. But new research investigating the attitudes of Americans suggests that, in the right scenario, plenty of people would support another atomic…
Niels Bohr in his lab at the University of Copenhagen Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Why Nobody Understands Quantum PhysicsFrank Verstraete and Céline Broeckaert (Macmillan (UK, on sale; US, 10 February 2026)) Quantum physics isn’t just complicated – after 100 years, there is an awful lot of it to understand. This makes writing an accessible yet comprehensive book about the…
A baffling proof of the ABC conjecture set off a bitter divide among mathematicians AndreasG/Shutterstock As a science journalist, there are some stories that you return to again and again. There is climate change, of course – the biggest story of our time. Then there are the big questions, such as “what is consciousness?” or…
Great star corals in the grip of disease have been saved with probiotics — beneficial bacteria that attack or displace invading pathogens or possibly trigger immune responses to them. What’s causing this deadly disease remains unidentified. But researchers at the Smithsonian Marine Station in Fort Pierce, Fla., were able to successfully halt progression of the…
Magnetic resonance imaging scan of a human brain Phanie/Sipa Press/Alamy A device that massages the face and neck boosts the brain’s waste disposal system, suggesting it could reduce the severity of conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) bathes our brain, pumped into it before leaving through a network of thin tubes called glymphatic vessels….
There are concerns that more children are being diagnosed with ADHD Imgorthand/Getty Images Is ADHD in children on the rise? An assessment of thousands of studies released since 2020 suggests, surprisingly, that the answer is no – but the researchers behind the work have expressed their frustration at the poor quality of data available, meaning…
Could you run for 100 hours this year? How about just doing a little more than 15 minutes each day? In fact, these goals are essentially equivalent, but one certainly sounds more ambitious than the other. The correct framing, then, is important when setting a goal. Take averting a sixth mass extinction. It definitely sounds…
