In fiction, magic makes levitation easy. With a simple swish-and-flick of his wand, Ron Weasley yanks a troll’s club high above its head in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Through graceful martial
A puzzling ultraviolet light seen across the Milky Way could come from the destruction of nuggets of dark matter, the mysterious stuff that makes up around a quarter of the matter and energy
The giant confinement building encapsulating the Chernobyl nuclear reactor that exploded nearly 40 years ago is smooth and curved—built with scientific precision. Installed in 2016, the structure was designed to prevent the escape
It was almost 100 years ago that Clyde W. Tombaugh discovered Pluto. That was the last planet found until 1992, when humans found another one. But this new planet wasn’t in our solar
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Among the myriad abilities that humans possess, which ones are uniquely human? Language has been a top candidate at least since Aristotle, who
This story originally appeared on Inside Climate News and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. When a derecho slammed into the Duane Arnold nuclear plant in 2020, Diana Lokenvitz had time for
A mosquito’s proboscis — the long, thin bit that pierces the skin — makes an excellent nozzle for fine 3-D printing. The proboscis’ unique geometry and mechanics make it well-suited for the task,
In 1875, Judy B., a Black woman, was admitted to St. Elizabeths, the Government Hospital for the Insane in Washington D.C. Except for her initial diagnosis of chronic dementia, her medical file remained
The long history of underground drug use abounds with secret societies—colorful cliques of like-minded individuals surreptitiously experimenting with newfangled compounds in an effort to understand their mysteries. Mid-19th-century France saw artists and intellectuals
If you want to get into stargazing in 2025, there’s still a chance to catch some of the best meteor showers of the year. Also known as shooting stars, meteors happen when Earth’s
