The mechanisms behind Alzheimer’s disease have eluded scientists for decades. But a new breakthrough points to lithium as a possible explanation—not only does it occur naturally in the brain, but a ...

Car crashes aren’t very funny. Unless, apparently, it’s a self-driving car. Researchers on public perception of these new vehicles explain why.

Since January, the Trump administration has made sweeping cuts to science and research at federal agencies, slashing funding, laying off workers and terminating grants. A minority staff report from ...

August 1, 2025 A workout can be a mental health boost—or a psychological strain. Two exercise researchers discuss what physical activity does to your mind. Plus, in a new book, mathematician Adam ...

When the cattle on Wilbur Earl Tennant's farm began to mysteriously fall ill and die, he suspected it wasn't what the animals were eating—it was what they were drinking.

We can’t seem to shake off our obsession with the ‘alpha wolf’ myth. Credit: Shutterstock Around the 1970s, the world latched onto a catchy new scientific term: alpha wolf. It described the top dog ...

The color isn’t olo, but it’s a decently close approximation. Credit: Shutterstock Think about the colors of the world around you—the blue of a cloudless sky, the green of a new leaf, the blazing red ...

Vibrations of D. Credit: Louviere + Vanessa In the late 18 th century, German physicist and musician Ernst Chladni demonstrated how vibrations could be used to create striking imagery. By spreading ...

Actually, it does. The story of artificial banana flavoring is, well, bananas.

The following is an excerpt from Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson. There are many portraits, including Leonardo’s earlier La Belle Ferronnière, in which the subject’s eyes appear to move as the ...

A jazz musician-turned-micrometeorite hunter gives advice on how to search for the tiny bits of cosmic dust that could be covering your rooftop.

From South Africa to the Arctic, flies play a role in the pollination of flowering plants—including the crop the provides one of our favorite candies.