2+ hour, 44+ min ago  (826+ words) A human embryo grows from a single cell into a whole body, dividing until trillions of cells settle into place. Yet some cells survive by killing their neighbors, in a process called cell competition. We tend to picture smooth teamwork....

3+ hour, 10+ min ago  (781+ words) The familiar view of Europe's winter snow is one of steady, uniform decline. Winters warm, the snow fades more each year, evenly, everywhere. Ski seasons open late, December hillsides stay green. The truth is lopsided. Until recently, the records were…...

3+ hour, 47+ min ago  (921+ words) Scientists have assumed that viruses in coastal mud follow the same patterns as those in the open ocean " the same types, the same behaviors. Intertidal mudflats have not been extensively studied to test that assumption, and what lives there, in…...

4+ hour, 43+ min ago  (873+ words) An elephant's trunk is one of the most versatile tools in nature. It can drag a fallen tree trunk, strip leaves from a branch, or gently peel a banana without crushing the fruit. Scientists have spent years studying the muscles…...

13+ hour, 11+ min ago  (780+ words) Fossils are usually the hard leftovers of a life. A bone, a tooth, the chalky shell of a creature that once sat on an ancient seabed. Crinoid tube feet are nothing like that. They are soft, water-filled stalks, the kind…...

5+ hour, 29+ min ago  (890+ words) Every prompt you send to an AI assistant ends up running through a data center somewhere, where racks of machines do the thinking and pull electricity to do it. Those buildings are hungry, and they keep getting hungrier. A research…...

5+ hour, 59+ min ago  (799+ words) Toxic chemicals that don't break down are accumulating in the wildlife of the Great Lakes " from algae at the bottom of the food chain all the way up to bald eagles at the top." A new study synthesizing 42 years of…...

8+ hour, 15+ min ago  (813+ words) Spray it, let it dry, and most homeowners consider the job done. The assumption is that the weed killer stays in the yard " not in the body of someone who is pregnant in the same house. A team tested that…...

9+ hour, 39+ min ago  (809+ words) Plenty of people treasure their alone time. They enjoy a quiet house, an empty afternoon, and no one to answer to. For some, that is the good life, not a problem to fix. Scientists wanted to draw a clear line…...

9+ hour, 19+ min ago  (886+ words) Most people know alcohol raises the risk of liver disease and some cancers, but pancreatic cancer has stood out as a notable exception. Despite being one of the deadliest forms of cancer, it has never been officially been recognized as…...