The spongy moth’s new name replaces an ethnic slur
A menacing pest just became a bit less problematic, at least socially, after getting an update to its common name. Lymantria dispar is an...
SCIENTIFIC NEWS
Ancient Homo sapiens took a talent for cultural creativity from Africa to Asia
Creativity runs deep in human evolution. Stone Age people steered their cultures through some inventive twists and turns as far-flung groups of Homo sapiens...
The mysterious Hiawatha crater in Greenland is 58 million years old
The powerful impact that created a mysterious crater at the northwestern edge of Greenland’s ice sheet happened about 58 million years ago, researchers report...
Genetically modified mosquitoes could be tested in California soon
Genetically modified mosquitoes might soon be whining on both U.S. coasts. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved two more years of testing Oxitec’s...
An extinct rat shows CRISPR’s limits for resurrecting species
Before the early 1900s, if it walked like a Christmas Island rat and talked like a Christmas Island rat, it probably was a Christmas...
Mirror beetles’ shiny bodies may not act as camouflage after all
This is a story about camouflage, but forget mud-blob brown, mealy beige and somber green. Here scientists study mirror glitz and the paradoxical notion...
Culturally prized mountain goats may be vanishing from Indigenous land in Canada
For thousands of years, members of the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation in Canada have prized the mountain goats that roam the craggy peaks of British...
Scientists are arguing over the identity of a fossilized 10-armed creature
An ancient cephalopod fossil may be about to rewrite octopus history, but it depends on who you ask. At the very least, it’s offering...
A new image captures enormous gas rings encircling an aging red star
Huge rings of gas surround a large red star named V Hydrae, new images show, signaling its eventual transformation into a much smaller and...
Russia’s war in Ukraine raises nuclear risks, physicists warn
Russia’s war with Ukraine is heightening nuclear fears on two fronts. Attacks on nuclear facilities have raised concerns about accidents, and threats from Russian...
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