Scientists

A California ground squirrel carries a vole in its mouth after hunting the rodent.

Squirrels Are Displaying 'Widespread Carnivorous Behavior' for the First Time in a California Park, New Study Finds

The familiar rodents, known for eating nuts and seeds, have been spotted hunting and decapitating voles in a gruesome dietary adaptation. Scientists say it might signal resiliency in face of future environmental pressures

Last week, scientists conducted the first-ever dissection of a spade-toothed whale, the rarest whale species on Earth.

Scientists Just Dissected the World's Rarest Whale in New Zealand. Here's What They Found

Only seven spade-toothed whales have ever been identified, and the species has never been seen alive. After one washed ashore last summer, researchers have made new discoveries—including that the animal had nine stomach chambers and vestigial teeth

DNA on Earth is built from sugars with a property known as right-handedness. Though left-handed sugars aren't used by any known life, scientists can create them—but now, researchers say they shouldn't.

Scientists Warn of an 'Unprecedented Risk' From Synthetic 'Mirror Life,' Built With a Reverse Version of Natural Proteins and Sugars

So-called mirror cells could rampage through our ecosystems, food supply and immune systems, experts say, potentially without existing barriers to protect against them

Two ivory-billed woodpeckers in one of the historic photographs that Arthur Allen captured in the field in 1935.

The Hero Who Convinced His Fellow Ornithologists of the Obvious: Stop Shooting Rare Birds and Watch Them Instead

Too late to save the ivory-billed woodpecker, Arthur Allen changed science forever with his seemingly simple idea

King Arthur's Hall in Cornwall was named for the legendary leader of the Round Table.

Historians Thought This Was a Medieval Site Linked to King Arthur. It Turned Out to Be a Mysterious Monument Built 4,000 Years Earlier

Researchers have excavated King Arthur's Hall, a rectangular enclosure in southwest England, and determined that it dates to at least 3000 B.C.E.

Jonathan Shapiro, a Vermont-based wilderness instructor and certified “specialist” tracker on the East Coast, during an evaluation in the California desert.

Even as A.I. Technology Races Ahead, the Prehistoric Science of Wildlife Tracking Is Making a Comeback

Humans perfected how to identify wild animals over millennia, and now biologists are rediscovering the exceptional worth of the tracks and marks left behind

The researchers examined eight Iranian swords in their study.

These Iron Age Swords Were Smuggled Out of Iran and Modified to Increase Their Value on the Black Market

Using advanced imaging techniques, researchers discovered modern glue, drill holes and even a fragment of a drill bit in the pastiches

John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on artificial neural networks and machine learning.

Scientists Who Developed the Building Blocks of Artificial Intelligence Win Nobel Prize in Physics

John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton shared the award for their work on artificial neural networks and machine learning

Brahe's mansion, Uraniborg, was located on an island in Sweden. His basement laboratory is represented by the bottom left room in this drawing.

Was This Renaissance Alchemist Ahead of His Time?

New research suggests that Tycho Brahe isolated tungsten nearly 200 years before the metal was identified as an element

The Kei apple tree (Dovyalis caffra) is native to southern Africa. It is one of the species that will have its scientific name changed after a recent vote.

Botanists Vote to Remove Racial Slur From Hundreds of Plant Species Names

In a first for taxonomy, researchers opted to change scientific names containing derivatives of the slur “caffra” to derivatives of “afr,” in reference to the plants' origins in Africa

A thin slice of the ancient rocks collected from Gakkel Ridge near the North Pole, photographed under a microscope and seen under cross-polarized light

Geologists Uncover Remnants of Earth’s Mantle That Have Lasted Over 2.5 Billion Years

New research suggests that a discrepancy in rocks shows they endured extreme heat, and reveals more about an ancient part of our planet’s history

A new study adds evidence to the idea that Earth's inner core is slowing its spin, though still rotating in the same direction as the planet.

Earth's Inner Core May Be Slowing Its Spin, Another Study Suggests

New research adds evidence to the controversial idea that the hot, solid ball at the center of our planet has been reducing its speed for years as part of an oscillating cycle

Akira Endo discovered the first statin, a class of molecule that decreases the production of cholesterol. He died June 5 at the age of 90.

Akira Endo, Biochemist Who Found a Way to Fight Heart Disease, Dies at 90

Endo's research paved the way for the development of drugs to treat high cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart attacks or strokes

Avi Wigderson is the first recipient of both a Turing Award and an Abel Prize, math's top honor.

Mathematician Who Shed Light on Randomness in Algorithms Wins Top Prize in Computing

Avi Wigderson earned the 2023 Turing Award for wide-ranging work in theoretical computer science

Peter Higgs stands in front of a photograph of the Large Hadron Collider at the Science Museum in London in 2013. The year before, researchers smashing protons together at the collidor had discovered evidence of a fundamental particle, which Higgs had proposed nearly 50 years prior.

Physicist Peter Higgs, Who Prompted a Decades-Long Search for a Tiny Particle, Dies at 94

The Nobel Prize winner predicted the Higgs boson, a fundamental particle that scientists successfully discovered in 2012, explaining how particles get their mass and underlying a key theory of the universe

Wide-ranging anecdotal reports and studies suggest many animals respond to a total solar eclipse, whether by showing anxiety, performing nighttime behaviors or doing something unexpected.

How Do Animals React to a Total Solar Eclipse? Scientists Document Strange and Surprising Behaviors

Nature enthusiasts work with researchers to figure out how creatures respond to the celestial phenomenon

The Moon's North Pole

Why Scientists Are Calling for the Moon to Be Better Protected From Development

Only a few lunar sites are ideal for certain cutting-edge research—and they’re under threat from mining, satellites and bases, scientists argue

Michel Talagrand is the 27th recipient of the Abel Prize, which was first awarded in 2003.

Mathematician Who Made Sense of the Universe's Randomness Wins Math's Top Prize

Michel Talagrand took home the 2024 Abel Prize for his work on stochastic systems, randomness and a proof of a physics reaction that many experts thought was unsolvable

Weliton Menário Costa dances in "Kangaroo Time," his winning music video about kangaroo behavior research.

Watch This Year's 'Dance Your PhD' Contest Winner, a Musical Celebration of Kangaroo Behavior

“Kangaroo Time” took home the competition’s overall prize, while interpretive dances on early life adversity, circadian rhythms and streambank erosion were also honored

An etching of Darwin's study, commissioned a week after he died.

See What Charles Darwin Kept in His 'Insanely Eclectic' Personal Library, Revealed for the First Time

On the English naturalist's 215th birthday, more than 9,000 titles from his expansive collection are now accessible online

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