Category: Science
-
Ontario wildfire smoke stretched across the Great Lakes and into the U.S.
A NASA satellite image shows smoke from Ontario wildfires moving across Canada, the Great Lakes, and parts of the U.S. Midwest and Northeast.
-
Taylor Farms removes lettuce as Cyclospora outbreak reaches 1,644 cases
Taylor Farms is removing iceberg lettuce from parts of its foodservice supply after a Cyclospora outbreak linked to some Taco Bell locations reached 1,644 confirmed cases.
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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:…
-
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…
-
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…