50 years ago, physicists got a whiff of what glues together protons
What holds the proton together— Science News, September 16, 1972 An experiment … at the CERN Laboratory in Geneva … gives an important clue...
SCIENTIFIC NEWS
Passing through the Milky Way’s arms may have helped form Earth’s solid ground
Earth’s journey through the Milky Way might have helped create the planet’s first continents. Comets may have bombarded Earth every time the early solar...
Need to keep cockatoos out of your trash? Try bricks, sticks or shoes
Human trash can be a cockatoo’s treasure. In Sydney, the birds have learned how to open garbage bins and toss trash around in the...
How living in a pandemic distorts our sense of time
Time hasn’t made much sense since spring 2020 for many people, myself included. In February 2020, during the Before Times, my family traveled to...
Can’t comb your kid’s hair? This gene may be to blame
The flurry of frizzy-hair e-mails began in 2016. Human geneticist Regina Betz of University Hospital Bonn in Germany and her team had just linked...
Why once-gold ceilings in Spain’s Alhambra palace have purple stains
Once upon a time, Spain’s hilltop Alhambra palace glittered with gold. Over the centuries, though, the Islamic citadel’s ornate, gilded structures on its ceilings...
A carbon footprint life cycle assessment can cut down on greenwashing
Today, you can buy a pair of sneakers partially made from carbon dioxide pulled out of the atmosphere. But measuring the carbon-reduction benefits of...
How to make recyclable plastics out of CO2 to slow climate change
It’s morning and you wake on a comfortable foam mattress made partly from greenhouse gas. You pull on a T-shirt and sneakers containing carbon...
DNA reveals donkeys were domesticated 7,000 years ago in East Africa
From pulling Mesopotamian war chariots to grinding grain in the Middle Ages, donkeys have carried civilization on their backs for centuries. DNA has now...
An AI can decode speech from brain activity with surprising accuracy
An artificial intelligence can decode words and sentences from brain activity with surprising — but still limited — accuracy. Using only a few seconds...
A new treatment could restore some mobility in people paralyzed by strokes 
What has Perseverance found in two years on Mars? 
This robot automatically tucks its limbs to squeeze through spaces 
Greta Thunberg’s new book urges the world to take climate action now