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.

Scientists have known blobs existed for a long time, but how they have behaved over Earth’s history has been an open question.
ballooning spiders
Small spiders use their silk threads to passively fly, a process called ballooning. Learning how could help atmospheric scientists.
Cambrian explosion
Scientists across a range of disciplines have helped solve Darwin's dilemma.
earendel
The Hubble Space Telescope, 32 years after its launch, broke the all-time record for most distant star. It won't do better.
earendel
The light from Earendel took 12.9 billion years to reach Hubble. The star is millions of times brighter than our Sun and 50 times as massive.
mercury diamonds
Due to a crust of carbon, the absence of oxygen, and constant bombardment from meteorites, the planet Mercury may be littered with diamonds.
flying-v plane
A radical redesign of commercial aircraft, called the flying-V plane, could increase fuel efficiency by 20%, greatly reducing emissions.
On Nov. 13, 1946, a scientist dropped crushed dry ice from a plane into supercooled stratus clouds.
Revolutionary techniques for understanding brain functions in animals could soon help us understand how emotions guide our lives.
mutations random
Mutations that confer malaria resistance occur more frequently in people who live in regions where the disease is endemic.
gravitational waves
To study the origin of the Universe, we could build a constellation of six expensive spacecraft — or we could just use the Moon.
how many planets
For some reason, when we talk about the age of stars, galaxies, and the Universe, we use "years" to measure time. Can we do better?
From life on Earth to the planet itself, there are four ways our planet will actually experience "the end," no matter how we define it.
astrology to astronomy
From the tablets of the Babylonians to the telescopes of modern science, humans have always looked to the skies for fundamental answers.
javelin missiles
Javelin missiles have been an effective force multiplier, the latter-day equivalent of the sling that David used against Goliath.
Galactic archaeology has uncovered a spectacular find: the Milky Way already existed more than 13 billion years ago.
chimpanzees
Chimpanzees are able to consider the context of social interactions and can accept unfavorable outcomes — sometimes.
alien life
Multiple lines of evidence — physical, chemical, and biological — must converge for scientists to conclude that alien life has been found.
The way that the ancient Megalodon adapted to water temperature has important implications for modern marine creatures.