Science & Tech

Science & Tech

Explore the discoveries that reveal how the world works, alongside the technologies that extend, reshape, and sometimes challenge what’s possible.

A choropleth map of the united states displaying median age by county with a color gradient from light to dark blue indicating increasing age ranges following a natural bell curve distribution.
Almost everything we can observe and measure follows what's known as a normal distribution, or a Bell curve. There's a profound reason why.
A clock hanging from a wall.
Research suggests you can influence your sense of time by changing the “embodiedness” of your daily habits.
Comparison of early Mars with abundant water and a thicker atmosphere versus the dry and arid Mars of today, much like Venus, which also died in terms of its potential to support life.
In the early stages of our Solar System, there were three life-friendly planets: Venus, Earth, and Mars. Only Earth thrived. Here's why.
gaia ESA milky way
For thousands of years, humanity had no idea how far away the stars were. In the 1600s, Newton, Huygens, and Hooke all claimed to get there.
An image of the earth with a mountain in the background, showcasing terraforming potential.
Whenever someone waxes poetic about terraforming alien worlds, it’s worth taking a moment to consider the ethical implications of the proposal.
A map with a circle and a circle in the middle.
The $21.5-billion project could involve tunneling hundreds of feet under Lake Geneva.
Einstein field equations
Although many of Einstein's papers revolutionized physics, there's one Einsteinian advance, generally, that towers over all the rest.
A black and white image of a black and white image of a black and white image of a black and white image of a.
We don’t yet know if these strange “obelisks” are helpful or harmful.
A person holding a gold trophy under a cloudy sky.
An MIT study finds the brains of children who grow up in less affluent households are less responsive to rewarding experiences.
Nasa's curiosity rover on mars.
The case for why NASA should pivot to searching for current — not ancient — signs of life.
A group of people standing in a circle.
Human civilization has always survived periods of change. Will our rapidly evolving technological era be an exception to the rule?
The discovery suggests that the "Boring Billion" period of evolution on Earth wasn't so boring after all.
An image of an EV car with a map on it.
A $30,000 electric vehicle with 400 miles of range that charges in under 10 minutes remains a pipe dream over the near future.
An abstract composite image depicting where life began with mountainous terrain, chemical structures, and a monochrome inset of a cloudy sky.
Although early Earth was a molten hellscape, once it cooled, life arose almost immediately. That original chain of life remains unbroken.
A digitally enhanced view of a crescent planet Earth with a galaxy in the background.
The Earth that exists today wasn't formed simultaneously with the Sun and the other planets. In some ways, we're quite a latecomer.
An image of a spiral galaxy in space.
In 1924, Edwin Hubble found proof that the Milky Way isn't the only galaxy in the Universe.
A colorful village sits on the shore of a body of water.
Scientists are working to map out the risks of the permafrost thaw, which could expose millions of people to the invisible cancer-causing gas.
A black and white image of a large circular object.
Recent measurements of CERN data seem to disagree with standard-model predictions about how the Higgs boson decays, though further analysis is needed to confirm the observations.
A diagram showing the structure of a galaxy.
The Universe didn't begin with a bang, but with an inflationary "whoosh" that came before. Here are the biggest questions that still remain.
An older man with glasses and a beard posing for a picture.
In "Dear Oliver," neuroscientist Susan Barry describes how her 10-year correspondence with Oliver Sacks unleashed her inner author.