Science
A Shape-Shifting Plastic With a Flexible Future

With restrictions on space and weight, what would you bring if you were going to Mars? An ideal option might be a single material that can shift shapes into any object you imagine. In the morning, you could mold that material into utensils for eating. When breakfast is done, you could transform your fork and […]

Updated: Feb 2, 2024
Parrots Use Their Beaks to Swing Like Monkeys

Rosy-faced lovebirds are charismatic, petite parrots. They also aren’t afraid to use their heads — literally — to get around an awkward situation. “They’re these incredibly smart animals who are really good problem solvers, and that also extends to the way that they move,” said Edwin Dickinson, a biomechanist at the New York Institute of […]

Updated: Jan 31, 2024
Teen Drug and Alcohol Use Linked to Mental Health Distress

The Findings: Drug Use as Self-Medication The paper found that the link between substance use and mental health existed even at low levels of drug and alcohol use. Dr. Tervo-Clemmens said that adolescents with low levels of substance use may be self-medicating and that their relatively modest substance use was not likely to be causing […]

Updated: Jan 29, 2024
A ‘Corpsicle’ Came Back to Life on ‘True Detective.’ Is That Possible?

In some less extreme cases, a person may regain consciousness when wrapped in warm blankets, taken inside, or treated with a machine that blows hot air across the body. But once a person’s heart and breathing have stopped, the best way to revive the person, doctors say, is by using a process known as extracorporeal […]

Updated: Jan 28, 2024
Japan Explains How It Made an Upside-Down Moon Landing

Japan became the fifth nation to land on the moon on Saturday, but its spacecraft ended up in an awkward position, with its engine nozzle pointed up toward space. By design, the Japanese spacecraft, known as Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, was supposed to land on its side, a strategy to avoid tipping […]

Updated: Jan 26, 2024
Even Rats Are Taking Selfies Now (and Enjoying It)

When Augustin Lignier, a professional photographer in Paris, was in graduate school, he began to ponder the point of picture-taking in the modern world: Why did so many of us feel compelled to photograph our lives and share those images online? It was not a novel question, but it led Mr. Lignier to a surprising […]

Updated: Jan 23, 2024
Is North Korea Planning a War?

North Korea fired hundreds of artillery shells in waters near South Korean border islands on Jan. 5. Last week, it said it no longer regarded the South as inhabited by “fellow countrymen” but as a “hostile state” it would subjugate through a nuclear war. On Friday, it said it had tested an underwater nuclear drone […]

Updated: Jan 21, 2024
These Two Cicada Broods Will Emerge Together for the First Time Since 1803

The cicadas are coming — and if you’re in the Midwest or the Southeast, they will be more plentiful than ever. Or at least since the Louisiana Purchase. This spring, for the first time since 1803, two cicada groups known as Brood XIX, or the Great Southern Brood, and Brood XIII, or the Northern Illinois […]

Updated: Jan 19, 2024
El caso de Singulair, un medicamento para el asma que provocó angustia

A principios de 2020, la Administración de Alimentos y Medicamentos (FDA, por su sigla en inglés) respondió a décadas de preocupaciones cada vez mayores sobre un medicamento que solía recetarse para el asma y las alergias mediante el despliegue de una de sus herramientas más potentes: una fuerte advertencia en la etiqueta del fármaco de […]

Updated: Jan 17, 2024
In Colombia, a Park for Anacondas and Anteaters, Where Ranchers Are Now Rangers

Already, though, the rangers had made a difference. They had established the government’s presence in a formerly anything-goes region. Thanks to their outreach in San Martín, they had been invited in November to march in the annual parade celebrating the cuadrillas. Mr. Zorro thought that the invitation was a turning point for the park, a […]

Updated: Jan 16, 2024