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Flashlight

The Mystery of Cosmic Radio Bursts Gets Bright New Clues

New research from two teams shows that these fleeting blips can be faster and brighter, and come from much further away, than previously thought.
Double Check

How to Spot Abortion-Related Misinformation

Climate Change

Glacial Lakes Threaten Millions in a Warming World

Health

History Says the 1918 Flu Killed the Young and Healthy. These Bones Say Otherwise

A study of bones held in a Cleveland museum reveals a new side to the pandemic’s story—and a new way to think about pandemics to come.

This Vaccine Protects Against Cancer—but Not Enough Boys Are Getting It

The HPV vaccine can effectively prevent a range of cancers if administered at the right age. But boys still can't access it in most countries.

Gaza’s Health System Is on the Brink of Collapse

Doctors say they are operating without anesthesia, hospitals have run out of space to put the wounded, and the dead are being buried in mass graves.

Inside the Race to Crush Paris’ Bedbug Crisis

Humans are teaming up with dogs to eliminate the blood-sucking pests, but there's no overarching strategy, just eye-watering costs.

Space

Things Are Looking Up for Asteroid Mining

Asteroids are rich with the metals used in clean energy technologies. As demand soars, advocates argue that mining them in space might be better than mining them on Earth. 

NASA’s Psyche Mission Is Off to Test a Space Laser (for Communications)

The Psyche probe is heading to its namesake metal-rich asteroid. Along the way, it will demonstrate a near-infrared laser system to send high-rate data hundreds of millions of miles home.

How to Watch Saturday’s Solar Eclipse

On the morning of October 14, an annular solar eclipse will be visible to people in the Americas, creating a fiery halo of light around a darkened sun.

This First Peek Inside NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Capsule Is a Glimpse Back in Time

Scientists finally began opening the rock sample from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx captured a treasure trove of material from the solar system’s earliest days.

Environment

Why Scientists Are Bugging the Rainforest

Scientists use microphones and AI to automatically detect species by their chirps and croaks. This bioacoustics research could be critical for protecting ecosystems on a warming planet.

Abandoned Farms Are a Hidden Resource for Restoring Biodiversity

A billion acres of old farmland—an area half the size of Australia—has fallen out of use. Ecologists say the lands and degraded forests are neglected resources for rewilding and for capturing carbon.

In Defense of the Rat

Rats are less pestilent and more lovable than you might think. Can humans learn to live with them?

The ‘Green’ Future of Furniture Is a Sofa Stuffed With Seaweed

Foam rubber—like the filling inside your couch—produces an enormous amount of CO2. A Norwegian company called Agoprene thinks seaweed could be the solution.

Climate

The Surprising Way Clean Energy Will Help Save the Snowpack

As if we needed another reason to quickly ditch fossil fuels: Cleaner snow melts much more slowly.

Why Have Climate Catastrophes Toppled Some Civilizations but Not Others?

Researchers are honing in on what helps societies survive climate shocks, like the volcanic eruptions that helped fell the Roman Empire or the drought that plagued the ancient Mayans.

Chum Salmon Are Spawning in the Arctic. It’s an Ominous Sign

The fish may be a harbinger of dramatic warming in the north—and rapidly transforming ecosystems.

DeepMind Wants to Use AI to Solve the Climate Crisis

WIRED spoke with DeepMind’s climate lead about techno-utopianism, ways AI can help fight climate change, and what’s currently standing in the way.

Energy

I’m Charging My Toothbrush With Wireless Power Over Distance—and It’s a Trip

Nikola Tesla once dreamed of transferring electrical energy through the air. Now, a company called Wi-Charge is beta-testing a prototype technology, and I’m testing it in my bathroom.

The Annular Solar Eclipse Will Decimate US Solar Energy Output

The annular solar eclipse will render more than a third of US solar energy capacity unavailable at some point tomorrow—enough to power about 20 million homes. Grid operators have backup plans.

Radiation Is Everywhere. But It’s Not All Bad

Although radiation sounds scary, it isn’t necessarily harmful. Here’s what to know about the four types.

Electrifying Your Home Is About to Get a Lot Cheaper

Rebates from the Inflation Reduction Act could help households save thousands on heat pumps, weatherstripping, and other efficiency upgrades.

Physics and Math

Magnetic Minerals May Have Given Life Its Molecular Asymmetry

The preferred “handedness” of biomolecules could have emerged from interactions between electrons and magnetic surfaces on primordial Earth, new research suggests.

How These Nobel-Winning Physicists Explored Tiny Glimpses of Time

The development of attosecond pulses of light allowed researchers to explore the frame-by-frame movement of electrons.

Which Spider-Man Is Stronger: Tobey Maguire or Tom Holland?

To figure it out, you’ll need two similar feats of superhero strength and a little bit of physics.

A New Proof Moves the Needle on a Sticky Geometry Problem

A deceptively simple math proposition known as the Kakeya conjecture underpins a tower of other questions in physics, number theory, and harmonic analysis.

Biotech

New Trials Aim to Restore Hearing in Deaf Children—With Gene Therapy

For the first time, researchers are testing an approach that involves replacing a mutated gene in the inner ears of children with severe hearing loss.

These Gene-Edited Chickens Were Made to Resist Bird Flu

Avian influenza can wipe out entire poultry flocks. An early experiment with Crispr suggests that gene editing can protect chickens against infection.

A Monkey Got a New Kidney From a Pig—and Lived for 2 Years

Human donor kidneys are in short supply. A new experiment that tested gene-edited organ transplants in monkeys showed that pig kidneys may one day be viable substitutes.

What Do We Owe the Octopus?

Mounting research suggests that cephalopods experience pain. Now, the National Institutes of Health is considering new animal welfare rules that would put them in the same category as monkeys.

Robots

Meet the Next Generation of Doctors—and Their Surgical Robots

Don't worry, your next surgeon will definitely be a human. But just as medical students are training to use a scalpel, they're also training to use robots designed to make surgeries easier.

AI Is Building Highly Effective Antibodies That Humans Can’t Even Imagine

Robots, computers, and algorithms are hunting for potential new therapies in ways humans can’t—by processing huge volumes of data and building previously unimagined molecules.

This Artificial Muscle Moves Stuff on Its Own

Actuators inspired by cucumber plants could make robots move more naturally in response to their environments, or be used for devices in inhospitable places.

Get Ready for 3D-Printed Organs and a Knife That ‘Smells’ Tumors

Hospitals are evolving at warp speed, and autonomous surgical robots are just the beginning.

Psychology and Neuroscience

This Contest Put Theories of Consciousness to the Test. Here’s What It Really Proved

A five-year “adversarial collaboration” of scientists led to a stagy showdown in front of an audience. It crowned no winners—but it’s still progress.

A Groundbreaking Human Brain Cell Atlas Just Dropped

The comprehensive collection of 21 studies attempts to map all the brain’s cell types and offers hope of one day being able to trace brain diseases to their genetic roots.

How Insect Brains Melt and Rewire During Metamorphosis

Do fruit flies remember their larval lives? To find out, scientists made the neurons inside larvae glow, then tracked how they reshuffled as they formed adult brains.

Is It Real or Imagined? Here’s How Your Brain Tells the Difference

New experiments show that the brain distinguishes between perceived and imagined mental images by checking whether they cross a “reality threshold."