Science

Most research on aging has been done on model organisms with limited life spans, such as flies and worms. Host Meagan Cantwell talks to science writer Yao-Hua Law about how long-living social insects—some of which survive for up to 30 years—can provide new insights into aging. 

A small room in the University of Regensburg is home to more than 50 boxes of black, strikingly slender ants. Native to Central America, the clonal ant Platythyrea punctata has evolved a trait rare among ants: It can produce daughters from unfertilized eggs. A P. punctata colony can consist entirely […]

More than 25 years ago, biologists in Arkansas began to report dozens of bald eagles paralyzed, convulsing, or dead. Their brains were pocked with lesions never seen before in eagles. The disease was soon found in other birds across the southeastern United States. Eventually, researchers linked the deaths to a […]

Late last month, an international horse jumping competition in Spain that usually offers a sunny getaway for elite riders took a grim turn. A disease outbreak sickened scores of horses, leaving many so weak they couldn’t stand and others exhibiting unusually aggressive behavior. At least 17 animals have since died; […]

Standard 3D printing requires a bulky, pricey machine, but what if you could fit that technology in your pocket? Researchers have harnessed a familiar instrument—the pen—to create a first-of-its-kind process that transforms flat ink drawings into 3D objects when the drawings are dipped into a special solution. The advance could […]

Scientists have long agreed that the Moon formed when a protoplanet, called Theia, struck Earth in its infancy some 4.5 billion years ago. Now, a team of scientists has a provocative new proposal: Theia’s remains can be found in two continent-size layers of rock buried deep in Earth’s mantle.

Science’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation.

A few years ago, four female mountain gorillas left home, abandoning not only their mate—a sick alpha silverback—but their infants, which were barely old enough to feed themselves. They may have sensed that their offspring would be safer with their ailing father than with new males that often kill infants […]