Science

In some ways, drilling into Antarctica’s ancient ice is easier than interpreting it. Today, more than 2 years after presenting the discovery of the world’s oldest ice core, scientists have published an analysis of the 2.7-million-year-old sample. One surprising finding: Air bubbles from 1.5 million years ago—from a time before the planet’s ice age cycles…

A new genetic study suggests all modern humans trace our ancestry to a single spot in southern Africa 200,000 years ago. But experts say the study, which analyzes the DNA of living people, is not nearly comprehensive enough to pinpoint where our species arose.

Electric vehicles are poised to transform nearly every aspect of transportation, including fuel, carbon emissions, costs, repairs, and driving habits. The primary impetus now is decarbonization to address the climate change emergency, but it soon may shift to economics because electric vehicles are anticipated to be cheaper and higher-performing than gasoline cars. The questions are…

Biogen stunned investors and scientists alike today, announcing it will resurrect an Alzheimer’s drug it had declared a failure in March; the company plans in early 2020 to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for marketing approval of aducanumab, an antibody designed to bind and eliminate the protein beta-amyloid in the brain.

Most geodes—hollow, crystal-lined rocks—can fit in the palm of your hand. But the giant Pulpí Geode, which is about half the size of a small bedroom, fills part of an abandoned mine in southeastern Spain. Now, researchers have analyzed some of its crystals to figure out its age—and how this real-life Fortress of Solitude came…

Brain scientists can watch neurons fire and communicate. They can map how brain regions light up during sensation, decision-making, and speech. What they can’t explain is how all this activity gives rise to consciousness. Theories abound, but their advocates often talk past each other and interpret the same set of data differently. Now, the Templeton…

Two years ago, a barely submerged volcano in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands released giant bubbles of gas, some of which were broader than the world’s largest humanmade dome, the 310-meter-wide National Stadium in Singapore, researchers reported today in Nature Geoscience.

A project to monitor every aspect of a fast-shrinking glacier could hold an answer to an urgent question: How fast will seas rise?

In the bowels of Yale University’s Peabody Museum of Natural History, Jasmina Wiemann yanks open a drawer in a floor-to-ceiling specimen cabinet. She lifts out a wickedly sharp, sickle-shaped dinosaur claw, black as coal. “This is the type specimen of Deinonychus—the basis for the Velociraptor in the Jurassic Park movies,” she says. The black color…