Science

Astronomers have spotted a dim and unexpectedly dense galaxy that may be almost entirely made of dark matter. Dubbed Dragonfly 44, this nearby group of stars (yellowish smudge at center of right image) was discovered just last year and apparently has less than 1% the number of stars in our Milky Way galaxy.

Solar stills can make tainted water or seawater fit to drink. But to produce more than a trickle, devices typically require expensive lenses or other equipment. Not anymore. Today, researchers report that they’ve created a cheap solar still from bubble wrap and other simple materials.

Some call it the “biological Chernobyl.” On 2 April 1979, a plume of anthrax spores was accidentally released from a secret bioweapons facility in the Soviet city of Sverdlovsk. Propelled by a slow wind, the cloud drifted southeast, producing a 50-kilometer trail of disease and death among humans and animals alike. At least 66 people…

A new type of cancer drug developed at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, but not yet tested in clinical trials may have triggered the deaths of three patients who were undergoing an alternative cancer treatment by a nonmedical practitioner in Germany. Germany has many such practitioners, and the field is loosely regulated.

With Rainer Weiss, gravitational wave hunter and likely Nobel laureate, there’s the story—and there’s the subtext.

How the zoo of exoplanets has turned planet formation theory upside down.

When is a wolf a wolf? For more than 30 years, the question has dogged scientists, conservationists, and policymakers attempting to restore and protect the large wild canids that once roamed North America.

This mouse may not look like anything special, but it’s the first of its kind. The egg cell used to create the rodent didn’t come from the ovaries of an adult mother, but were developed in a dish from egg precursor cells of a mouse fetus.

At first it seemed like the usual, deviously clever attack. Several killer whales were trying to catch a Weddell seal that had taken refuge atop a drifting patch of Antarctic ice. The orcas swam alongside each other, creating a wave that knocked the hapless pinniped into the water. Death seemed certain