An experiment has finally revealed how it might feel to touch a quantum superfluid.Physicists dunked a special, finger-sized probe into an isotope of helium cooled to just a smidge over absolute zero,...
A deadly wave of heart attacks and strokes is headed for the US, borne by extreme heat waves spawned by climate change—and those deaths are most likely to occur in people who...
A new study reveals a previously undiscovered way that we can feel light touches: directly through our hair follicles.Before now, it was thought that only nerve endings in the skin and around...
Incredible though it may seem, a wriggly roundworm with no eyes, no spine, and no brain to speak of may still possess the most basic of animal emotions.In recent research, the nematode,...
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine.On warm summer nights, green lacewings flutter around bright lanterns in backyards and at campsites. The insects, with their veil-like wings, are easily...
At first glance, the grit crust could seem like a routine example of what researchers call a biological soil crust, or “biocrust”—a community of coexisting bacteria, fungi, algae, and other microorganisms that...
Scientists have isolated a possible new antibiotic from a strain of bacterium found in sandy soil from North Carolina.The way it works could make pathogens less likely to develop drug resistance.The potent...
For three years, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued complicated—and occasionally contradictory—guidance on when you should wear a mask, depending on whether you're inside, outside, vaccinated, or...
