Science

a colorful image of a human embryo at Day 11 under a microscope

Model human embryo, created from stem cells, survives past two weeks

A model human embryo capable of developing past day 14 could revolutionize our understanding of human development.

How years of fighting every wildfire helped fuel the Western megafires of today

The current approach to fire management poses unnecessarily high stakes for forests. Here’s why fighting every fire does more harm than good.

Paul Hessburg and Keala Hagmann and Susan J. Prichard

rows of black rock with the gloved hands of a scientist in the background

Planet Earth

Record-breaking amount of Earth’s mantle drilled out of ocean floor

Scientists aboard the JOIDES Resolution have retrieved “a staggering” amount of mantle rock from below the ocean floor.

Kristin Houser

Public Health

How cancer science is creating a sunscreen that lasts all day

NYU chemists have taken lessons learned from cancer drug development to create a longer-lasting sunscreen ingredient

B. David Zarley

Genetics

Gene editing gone wrong: Scientists accidentally create angry hamsters

A team of scientists used gene editing to create what they thought would be a calmer rodent. Instead, the gene-edited rodents were angrier.

Peter Rogers

Robotics

Cloud labs are the “ghost kitchens” of science

Cloud labs which run experiments with robots remotely may make science more efficient, replicable, and accessible.

B. David Zarley

Drugs

Magic mushrooms evolved to scramble insect brains, send them on wild, scary trips

Researchers discovered that the way fungi independently gained the ability to produce psilocybin is because of horizontal gene transfer.

Matt Davis

CRISPR

New CRISPR-based map ties every human gene to its function

Researchers used a single-cell sequencing tool Perturb-seq on every expressed gene in the human genome, linking each to its job in the cell.

Eva Frederick | Whitehead Institute

Physics

Nuclear isomers were discovered 100 years ago

Protons and neutrons in an atom’s nucleus can be arranged in different configurations, creating nuclear isomers.

Dennis Mücher and Artemis Spyrou

Physics

Lasers could cut lifespan of nuclear waste from “a million years to 30 minutes,” says Nobel laureate

If no solution is found, we're already stuck with some 22,000 cubic meters of long-lasting hazardous waste.

Robby Berman

Food

Real cheese without the cow

Biotech startup Formo uses genetically modified microorganisms to produce a completely lab-grown milk that can be made into cheese.

William Lockett

CRISPR

First CRISPR’d cockroaches open door to other gene-edited insects

It’s now easier for scientists to create gene-edited insects thanks to a new technique called “direct parental CRISPR.”

Kristin Houser

Physics

Einstein was right. Flying clocks around the world in opposite directions proved it.

By flying planes both with and against Earth's rotation, and returning them all to the same starting point, we tested Einstein's theory.

Ethan Siegel

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