Latest

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A silhouette of a person with glowing orange eyes against a brightly lit office window exudes an aura of power, casting dramatic shadows that heighten the room's awareness.
If you have any sort of power for any reasonable length of time, you will be changed by it — awareness of the effects is crucial.
heavy neutral atom
There are a few small cosmic details that, if things were just a little different, wouldn't have allowed our existence to be possible.
Yellow and black bird perched on a thin branch surrounded by green leaves.
Off-the-shelf consumer technology is helping people pursue their interests — and advancing science at the same time.
Under the night sky, where the Milky Way galaxy glows above a silhouette of trees and a mountain, stars scatter across the deep blue and purple expanse. It's an ideal backdrop for alien hunting, sparking curiosity about potential biosignatures hidden among those distant celestial wonders.
Recent controversies bode ill for the effort to detect life on other planets by analyzing the gases in their atmospheres.
Gloved hands holding a computer processor chip, viewed from an angled perspective against a black background.
AI software is rapidly accelerating chip design, potentially leveling up the speed of innovation across the economy.
Grayscale image showing a flying object captured on radar screen with various data markings.
Astronomer Adam Frank asks: With so many extraordinary claims, why can't anybody produce the proof?
A gloved hand grips a vaccine-loaded syringe, framed by a red-tinted portrait of a historical figure in the center and a grainy black-and-white landscape on the right.
"I have a friend who thinks vaccines cause autism," writes Nina. "What can I do?"
In a split image, Taleb's surgeon stands confidently alongside two diverse medical professionals: a woman in a hijab and a woman with glasses, each wearing stethoscopes.
The truly talented are those who got to where they are despite preconceived expectations.
A man with short, grayish hair, wearing a dark blazer and black shirt, stares directly at the camera against a black background.
9mins
"I think we need a truly open-ended conversation with 8 billion strangers, and what makes that hard to do increasingly is a level of political fragmentation and extremism and partisanship born of our engagement with these new technologies."
When we see pictures from Hubble or JWST, they show the Universe in a series of brilliant colors. But what do those colors really tell us?
People walking on a city street with steam rising from vents create a scene reminiscent of an omics exposome research study. A woman in a white beanie looks back as buildings and traffic form the vibrant backdrop.
Of the millions of substances people encounter daily, health researchers have focused on only a few hundred. Those in the emerging field of exposomics want to change that.
A silhouette of a person stands in front of three closed doors in a dimly lit room. White swirling lines surround the figure, adding a sense of motion and mystery to the scene.
In the 18th century, David Hume argued that we are only motivated to do good when our passions direct us to do so. Was he right?
Collage featuring an excavator, the ChatGPT interface, financial figures, and text that reads "The Nightcrawler," all woven into abstract design elements that subtly hint at playing the long game.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
elements Cas A remnant Chandra X-ray
The last naked-eye Milky Way supernova happened way back in 1604. With today's detectors, the next one could solve the dark matter mystery.
Close-up of multi-colored snowflakes on the left and a detailed view of a spiral galaxy on the right against a star-filled background.
How did life on Earth begin? Is there life on other worlds? An answer to either question will reflect heavily on the other. 
Aerial map view highlighting the Humongous Fungus in red within Malheur National Forest, with labeled sections "Genet D" and "Genet E." A scale bar indicates 2 kilometers.
A member of a species that kills trees, this mushroom is not the first to be called the Humongous Fungus — and perhaps not the last.
Red ink disperses in water with the words "Menopause Chaos" overlaid in bold white font.
13mins
What can you do to support your health during menopause? “If exercise were a drug, that would be the one thing that we would be giving to everybody.”
Animation of a star being engulfed by another star, emitting bright light and gas in space.
Since 1930, type Ia supernovae have been thought to arise from white dwarfs exceeding the Chandrasekhar mass limit. Here's why that's wrong.
Collage of social media icons and pixelated images in a grid layout, featuring Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook logos on a red background.
"The evolution of digital media makes stricter regulation of online behavior not only feasible but inevitable," writes media ecologist Andrey Mir.
Open book with a gradient bar design on the left page and an illustration of founders sharing wisdom around a fire on the right page.
Startup success can often hinge on a key lesson derived from behavioral science … and Jerry Seinfeld's "Night Guy vs. Morning Guy" routine.