Category: Science
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Ancient monastery in Egypt reveals how early Christian monks lived
In Egypt’s western desert, archaeologists have uncovered a monastery that appears to date to Christianity’s earliest centuries. The site sits in Wadi El-Natrun, a landscape closely tied to the rise of monastic life. What emerged from the sand was more than a ruined structure. It was a carefully ordered community that offers a rare look
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Why a cluster of scientist deaths is raising questions without proving a connection
A death inside the scientific community rarely becomes a national story on its own. But when another researcher disappears, another is killed, and another dies without much public explanation, the losses start to collect in the public imagination. That is what has happened around Michael Hicks, the longtime Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist whose 2023 death
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He lost his penis in a ritual. A transplant made him a father.
In December 2014, South African surgeons achieved what had never been done before: a successful long-term penis transplant. The marathon 9-hour operation at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town reattached a donated penis to a 21-year-old recipient who had lost his own organ to a botched circumcision ritual. Led by urologist Prof. André van der Merwe
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Scientists find brain circuit that turns pain into suffering
What if the real source of pain isn’t your body, but your brain’s reaction to it? That’s the question researchers at the Salk Institute are exploring through a groundbreaking discovery: a previously hidden neural pathway that gives pain its emotional weight. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (read the study), the
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How poop could save species from extinction
Every animal leaves something behind. For a long time, we treated that something—dung—as waste, something to bag or step around. But what if it holds the key to keeping endangered species alive? A team of researchers from Oxford University, Chester Zoo, and the conservation nonprofit Revive & Restore is betting on just that. Their goal:
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Wind and solar just got taxed. Here’s who benefits.
Late last week, while most of the country was heading into the weekend, Senate Republicans quietly slipped a new provision into their 940-page budget bill. The provision is an excise tax targeting future wind and solar projects. Not just a rollback of clean energy support. A penalty. Under the proposed bill, any wind or solar
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Inside the Hidden World of Kidney Stones: 5 Microscopic Images
Many people will face kidney stones at some point in their lives. According to estimates from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, around 12 percent of the population experiences these small but painful formations. Men are more likely to develop them than women, yet the gap appears to be narrowing. Some
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When a Spoonful of Plastic Settles in the Brain
They slip into the air we breathe and drift through the water we drink. Now, a growing body of evidence suggests that our very brains may harbor tiny pieces of plastic in amounts rivaling a disposable spoon. According to research published in Nature Medicine, microplastics have infiltrated almost every corner of our bodies, including brain
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At the Brink: How Washington’s New Budget Threatens American Science
Researchers across the United States are bracing for upheaval as the White House prepares a budget proposal that could drastically cut funding for the National Science Foundation. For decades, the NSF has served as a backbone of American innovation. Now, the agency and its scientists face unsettling uncertainty, with some leaders warning that these proposed