Animals
A new exhibit invites you into the ‘Secret World of Elephants’
As elephants face survival threats, the American Museum of Natural History highlights their pivotal role in shaping landscapes — and their resilience.
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
Is aging without illness possible?
Researchers are harnessing basic biology to develop drugs that foster healthy aging. Just don’t call them antiaging pills.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Earth
Before ancient Egyptians, nature sculpted sphinxes. Here’s how
Steady winds can carve landforms called yardangs — thought to have inspired the Great Sphinx of Gaza — from featureless blobs, a new study suggests.
Notebook
Animals
This bird hasn’t been seen in 38 years. Its song may help track it down
Using bioacoustics, South American scientists are eavesdropping on a forest in hopes of hearing the song of the long-missing purple-winged ground dove.
Features
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Filipino math teacher Emma Rotor helped develop crucial WWII weapons tech
Devoted wife of a famed Filipino writer, Emma Unson Rotor worked on the proximity fuze at a U.S. agency in the 1940s.
More Stories from the January 13, 2024 issue
- Neuroscience
Electrical brain implants may help patients with severe brain injuries
After deep brain stimulation, five patients with severe brain injuries improved their scores on a test of cognitive function.
- Health & Medicine
When it comes to physical activity, every bit counts
Biking to the store. Raking leaves. Playing with your kids. Scientists are getting a clearer picture of all the activities that offer health benefits.
- Animals
These nesting penguins nod off over 10,000 times a day, for seconds at a time
Micronaps net chinstrap penguins over 11 hours of sleep a day, offering some rest while staying vigilant against predators and competitors.
- Animals
Fish beware: Bottlenosed dolphins may be able to pick up your heartbeat
Fish, sharks and platypuses are adept at sensing electrical signals living things give off. Bottlenosed dolphins make that list too, studies suggests.
- Planetary Science
Giant polygon rock patterns may be buried deep below Mars’ surface
A Chinese rover used radar to reveal long-buried terrain that might hint that Mars’ equator was once much colder and wetter.
- Astronomy
How tiny red stars can test ideas about the origin of life
A survey of ultracool dwarf stars finds they don’t emit enough UV light to kick-start life, but they could reveal other ways for life to get going.
- Anthropology
Spanish horses joined Indigenous South Americans’ societies long before Europeans came to stay
By the early 1600s, hunter-gatherers at the continent’s southern tip adopted horses left behind by colonial newcomers, new finds suggest.
- Paleontology
The real culprit in a 19th century dinosaur whodunit is finally revealed
Contrary to the stories handed down among paleontologists, creationism wasn’t to blame for the destruction of Central Park’s dinosaurs.
- Archaeology
A mysterious ancient grave with a sword and mirror belonged to a woman
The items hint that she fought in or helped plan raids and defensive actions in what’s now southwestern England about 2,000 years ago, scientists speculate.
- Animals
These bats are the only mammals known to mate more like birds
Male serotine bats have penises too large for penetration. To mate, the animals rub their genitals against each other, somewhat like birds’ cloacal kiss.
- Astronomy
A rare, extremely energetic cosmic ray has mysterious origins
In 1991, physicists spotted a cosmic ray with so much energy it warranted an ‘OMG.’ Now that energetic particle has a new companion.
- Physics
50 years ago, timekeepers deployed the newly invented leap second
After more than 50 years, metrologists will stop using the leap second to align the time kept by atomic clocks with the rate of Earth’s spin.
