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Science
Physics, climate, planetary science, and the research that shapes how we understand the universe and our place in it.
The rocks at the very summit of Mount Everest are limestone formed on an ancient ocean floor, and fossils of trilobites, sea lilies, and tiny crustaceans have been found in samples collected just six metres below the top of the highest point on Earth
Scott Kelly spent 340 days aboard the ISS, and his telomeres—the protective caps on chromosomes that generally shorten with age—unexpectedly grew longer in orbit. Most shortened again within two days of landing, ultimately leaving him with many more critically short telomeres than before the mission, alongside separate signs of lasting chromosome damage.
A typical AI-focused data centre consumes as much electricity as 100,000 homes; that demand has helped trigger a race to put computing clusters into orbit, where companies argue that near-continuous sunlight could eliminate the utility bill — though the solar arrays, launches and cooling hardware would still cost millions.
Mountain gorillas build immense muscle on leaves and stems — and the gut microbes that help power them produce the same short-chain fatty acids your own body absorbs
In August 2012, Voyager 1 recorded a sudden surge in galactic cosmic rays while the surrounding magnetic field barely changed direction—an unexpected combination that revealed the boundary of interstellar space was more complicated than scientists had predicted.
NASA is keeping Voyager 1 alive by switching off instruments and heaters one by one—but it cannot let the spacecraft become so cold that its fuel lines freeze. If those lines fail, Voyager could lose the thrusters that keep its antenna aimed at Earth, permanently silencing the most distant human-made object.
Scientists painted black cows with white stripes to test whether zebra markings deter biting flies — and the painted cows drew 50 per cent fewer flies, adding weight to the theory that zebras evolved their colouring not for camouflage or heat, but as a living insect repellent
Earth's magnetic field has flipped hundreds of times, the last reversal was around 780,000 years ago, and the field has been weakening for the past two centuries
A supermassive black hole called RBH-1, weighing at least ten million Suns, appears to have been flung from its galaxy and is now racing through space at nearly 1,000 kilometres per second, leaving a 200,000-light-year wake of newborn stars
In 1859, the Carrington solar storm sent currents surging through telegraph wires, shocking operators, igniting telegraph paper and allowing some lines to transmit with their batteries disconnected. A comparable storm today could cause widespread blackouts—and one influential worst-case assessment warned that full recovery might take four to ten years, although experts remain divided over how severe the damage would actually be.
