Science

Business attire, headsets, and multiple computer monitors are a much different backdrop than hiking gear, rock hammers, and the volcanic fields of Iceland. For Kelsey Young of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Trevor Graff and...

Human minds often wander. Whether we’re busy at work, doing chores or exercising, our thoughts frequently shift away from the task at hand. These spontaneous thoughts sometimes turn toward sensations in the body, such as our heartbeat or breath,...

Medical care isn’t just tests and procedures. It’s discussing diagnoses, chatting about health behaviors and conducting psychotherapy. Legally, speech related to medical care has been considered conduct, so it’s subject to state laws that regulate the practice of medicine.But...

At the top of the planet, the cap of sea ice across Arctic waters grows and shrinks with the seasons, usually reaching its annual maximum extent in March. In 2026, this peak occurred on March 15, when the extent...

More than 539 million years ago, soft, clarinet-shaped animals anchored themselves to the seafloor on disc-shaped bases, swaying alongside stalked animals resembling worms and baskets. These woodwindlike creatures are just a few of those coming to life from a...

When periodical cicadas surface after years underground, they don’t grope blindly for trees. They head for the shadows, researchers report March 20 in the American Naturalist.A detailed analysis of Brood XIII cicadas — which spend 17 years developing in...

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The oldest known dice in the world are roughly 12,000 years old and from western North America, a new study suggests. Before the discovery, the oldest dice recorded were from Mesopotamia, made around 5,500 years ago. That pushes the...

In early spring 2026, a dry, dust-laden wind known as the harmattan swept across northwestern Africa. Cold temperatures, high winds, and blowing dust prompted officials to issue an alert for several regions of Morocco due to the low visibility...

Tomás Palacios, the Clarence J. LeBel Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT, has been appointed director of...