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

Biology

New lab-grown mini hearts have a human-like beat

Researchers created the first human mini heart in the lab. The mini hearts, called cardioids, have developed distinctly beating chambers, which fire in sync.

Teresa Carey

Animals

Birds, frogs, and reptiles use sound to “program” embryos

Sound appears to play a larger role in animal development than previously thought, affecting how a variety of species prepare for life outside the womb or egg.

Kristin Houser

Neuroscience

Will human augmentation move too fast for our brains?

To show how human augmentation can affect the brain, participants in a new study underwent fMRIs after learning to use a prosthetic called the "Third Thumb."

Kristin Houser

Planet Earth

These cartographers screwed up — but their error preserved Minnesota's oldest forest

A 19th-century surveying mistake kept lumberjacks away from what is now Minnesota's largest patch of old-growth trees.

Frank Jacobs

Agriculture

CRISPR could save billions of baby chicks before they hatch

Male chicks are killed as soon as they hatch, in a gruesome process called chick culling. Gene editing could save them.

Teresa Carey

Fertility

Sperm may play a bigger role in pregnancy than we thought

Sperm appear to play a bigger role in pregnancy than previously believed, not only fertilizing the egg, but also “persuading” the female body to accept it.

Kristin Houser

temperature inversion track wildfire smoke

Climate Crisis

How wonky cell phone signals help track wildfire smoke

An atmospheric oddity called a temperature inversion helped researchers discover how mobile phone signals could show the amount of bushfire smoke suffocating towns and cities.

Teresa Carey

Inventions

A “Lite-Brite” for DNA data storage

A new method for DNA data storage uses light-emitting strands of DNA to encode digital messages, eliminating the need for sequencing.

Kristin Houser

Food

Startup aims to put lab-grown lobster on the menu

Wisconsin startup Cultured Decadence is developing lab-grown lobster meat in the hopes of meeting a demand currently threatened by climate change.

Kristin Houser

Neuroscience

Neuroscientists are making "bug brain soup"

A novel method for counting neurons that involves mashing insects’ brains into a “soup” has led to several new discoveries about bugs.

Kristin Houser

Sections

Series & Columns

Freethink

We focus on solutions: the smartest people, the biggest ideas, and the most ground breaking technology shaping our future.