The stories we tell ourselves about the natural world can sometimes stretch far from the truth.For years, visitors to the rainforests of Central and South America have been told of a tree...
The early 1970s were the real heyday of beef in the US. It was the era of stroganoff, stews, and casseroles, steak lunches and 60-cent hamburgers. It was also the beginning of...
Scientists have discovered how our DNA can use a genetic fast-forward button to make new genes for quick adaptation to our ever-changing environments.During an investigation into DNA replication errors, researchers from Finland's...
But the detector is more complicated than you might think. “The detector is made up of many different layers,” she explains. “We often describe it as an onion.” At the center, there’s...
Underwater cameras have captured a unique dolphin behavior off the coast of Western Australia in what scientists suspect is a world-first.For decades now, bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and local crabbers in the...
Next week, world leaders will head to Dubai for the Conference of the Parties—the United Nations’ annual climate meeting—to finalize the first “global stocktake,” assessing progress toward the Paris Agreement’s goals. The...
Scientists have solved the mystery of one of the animal kingdom's most disproportionately large penises thanks to a Dutch retiree recording bat sex in a church attic.The serotine bat does not use...
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine.For a pathogen to make us sick, it must overcome a lot. First it has to enter the body, bypassing natural barriers such...
