A new deep-learning AI model may help scientists better decipher the plot of the genetic instruction book and learn how typos alter the story. AlphaGenome, created by Google DeepMind, is the latest in
When new dietary guidelines for Americans came out in early January, I couldn’t help but notice “healthy fats” at the top of the inverted food pyramid. Like the food pyramid itself, the new
After nearly two decades, the baby whale came back—as a mother, with a baby of its own. Julie Albert, director of the Right Whale Sighting Network at Blue World Research Institute, a nonprofit,
After a heart attack, the heart “talks” to the brain. And that conversation may make recovery worse. Shutting down nerve cells that send messages from injured heart cells to the brain boosted the
Spiders’ ability to spin webs may be one consequence of a really big genetic mistake. A close look at the genetics and development of spinnerets — spiders’ silk-making organs — reveals that an
A digging stick and a tiny tool of unknown purpose are among the oldest handheld wooden tools ever found. The objects, from 430,000 years ago, indicate early human ancestors were using wood for
Southern elephant seal pups were among the first to die when a deadly strain of avian influenza arrived in the Crozet Islands in 2024. But as the virus spread across the sub-Antarctic archipelago,
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. The reason we can gracefully glide on an ice-skating rink or clumsily slip on an icy sidewalk is that the surface of ice
Nancy Shute is editor in chief of Science News Media Group. Previously, she was an editor at NPR and US News & World Report, and a contributor to National Geographic and Scientific American.
Meghan Rosen is a senior writer who reports on the life sciences for Science News. She earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology with an emphasis in biotechnology from the University of
