This is the first picture of an exoplanet from the James Webb Space Telescope. “We’re actually measuring photons from the atmosphere of the planet itself,” says astronomer Sasha Hinkley of…
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A clever molecular trick extends the lives of these ant queens
For some ant queens, the secret to long life might be a self-produced insulin blocker. Ant queens are famously long-lived, even though they shouldn’t be. Generally, animals that put lots…
Who has the highest risk of long COVID? It’s complicated
For millions of people, COVID-19 doesn’t end with a negative test. Weeks or months after traces of the virus disappear from noses and throats, symptoms can persist or come back.…
Ancient ‘demon ducks’ may have been undone by their slow growth
Giant flightless birds called mihirungs were the biggest birds to ever stride across what is now Australia. The animals, which weighed up to hundreds of kilograms, died out about 40,000…
The curious case of the 471-day coronavirus infection
As omicron subvariant BA.5 continues to drive the coronavirus’ spread in the United States, I’ve been thinking about what could come next. Omicron and its offshoots have been topping the…
This bizarre ancient critter has been kicked out of a group that includes humans
No ifs, ands or butts about it: A teeny roughly 530-million-year-old critter that lacks an anus is not, as previously thought, the oldest member of a wide-ranging animal group that…
This bizarre ancient critter has been kicked out of a group that includes humans
No ifs, ands or butts about it: A teeny roughly 530-million-year-old critter that lacks an anus is not, as previously thought, the oldest member of a wide-ranging animal group that…
The Tonga eruption may have spawned a tsunami as tall as the Statue of Liberty
The massive Tonga eruption generated a set of planet-circling tsunamis that may have started out as a single mound of water roughly the height of the Statue of Liberty. What’s…
COVID-19 gave new urgency to the science of restoring smell
It was the juice that tipped him off. At lunch, Ícaro de A.T. Pires found the flavor of his grape juice muted, flattened into just water with sugar. There was…
‘The Five-Million-Year Odyssey’ reveals how migration shaped humankind
The Five-Million-Year OdysseyPeter BellwoodPrinceton Univ., $29.95 Archaeologist Peter Bellwood’s academic odyssey wended from England to teaching posts halfway around the world, first in New Zealand and then in Australia. For…
