Technology
A Mathematician’s Guide to How Contagion Spreads
Adam Kucharski wrote The Rules of Contagion before Covid-19. He talks about misinformation, bank failures, and coming up with hypotheses...
The Epic Siberian Journey to Solve a Mass Extinction Mystery
A quarter-billion years ago, huge volcanic eruptions burned coal, leading to the worst extinction in Earth’s history. Here’s how scientists...
The UAE’s First Mars Mission Is a Robo-Meteorologist
The United Arab Emirates is preparing to launch its first Martian satellite, Hope, which will search for clues to the Red Planet’s...
Astronomers Are Uncovering the Magnetic Soul of the Universe
Researchers are discovering that magnetic fields permeate much of the cosmos. If these fields date back to the Big Bang, they could...
A Bird’s Epic Migration Stuns Scientists and Wins Online...
As researchers tracked his flight over 27 countries, a cuckoo became a celebrity and raised questions about how climate change could...
Hummingbirds Can See Colors We Can’t Even Imagine
When humans see purple, we’re really seeing a blend of red and blue light. Hummingbirds see purple plus ultraviolet—and lots of other...
How Masks Went From Don’t-Wear to Must-Have During the...
Public health messaging and science have to work hard to stay in sync during a crisis. During the Covid-19 pandemic, they haven’t...
Your Firework Smoke Could Be Tainted With Lead
It may be the most unpatriotic toxicology study ever, but so be it: Metals give fireworks their color, but some manufacturers are...
Where Should Covid-19 Vaccines Be Tested? It's a Moving...
Developers need to test in hotspots, but those keep changing. And they must avoid ethical problems, like testing in low-income areas...
The CEO of Novartis on Developing Drugs During a Pandemic
Vas Narasimhan talks about drug prices, vaccine development, the rise and fall of hydroxychloroquine, and how Big Pharma might win...
