Is AI making us dumber? Maybe not. But our skills are at risk
Studies suggest AI can weaken learning when it replaces effort, but tools that guide rather than answer may help people keep their skills.
Category: Science
Roman Space Telescope Plaque Install
Technicians inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center complete installation of a commemorative plaque on the agency’s Nancy Grace Roman Space
Brains don’t always rot: Scientists may finally know how human brains have evaded decay for thousands of years
The brain preservation paradox — the discovery of well-preserved human brains among otherwise skeletal remains — has puzzled archaeologists and pathologists alike for decades. Now
‘Darwin’s hypothesis provided an important inspiration’: Scientists bolster 150-year-old Darwinian theory with a carnivorous plant in China
Scientists have confirmed that a flowering plant native to the mountains in southwest China is carnivorous, supporting a prediction made by Charles Darwin more than
A SpaceX rocket will hit the moon at 5,000 mph tonight. Experts explain what you could see, and when.
An abandoned part of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is projected to crash into the moon at 2:35 a.m. EDT on Aug. 5 — and
Emperor penguin chicks like these starved. An iceberg may be the cause
An emperor penguin colony in Antarctica saw a massive decline in chicks in 2025. The contours of a nearby grounded iceberg may have been the
‘Even when knowledge improves, emotional anxiety does not easily disappear’: Pediatrician Dr. Masahiko Sakamoto on educating parents about childhood illnesses
‘A silent pandemic’: How Japan is curbing antibiotic resistance, $5 at a time This is the fourth story in a series about antibiotic use in
Rock crystal scraper: 45,000-year-old Neanderthal tool that shows they had an ‘eye for beauty of form and color’
QUICK FACTS Name: Rock crystal scraper What it is: A stone tool made from microcrystalline quartz Where it is from: Dordogne, southwestern France When it
Guinea-Bissau Tidal Waters
Relatively low tidal waters expose sandflats and mudflats in the Bijagós Archipelago of Guinea-Bissau in this image acquired on November 28, 2025, with the OLI
Why the Legendary Erdős Problems Are Falling to AI
On May 20, 2026, OpenAI made an announcement that shook the mathematical world. An internal AI model — one not available to the public —
Naked mole-rat queens rule their colonies with a potent odor
A compound made only by breeding queens keeps naked mole-rat colonies infertile and free of conflict.
‘Cheating’ birds change their tune
Female pied flycatchers can tell whether a male is paired or not based on song differences. Mated males sing shorter songs and repeat syllables less.
2 people die of Cyclospora infection in Michigan
Editor’s note: This is a developing story and may be updated. Michigan has reported two deaths in its ongoing Cyclospora outbreak, a wave of parasitic
Scientists uncover big clue as to how Antarctica’s mysterious Blood Falls came to be
At the end of a glacier deep in East Antarctica’s Taylor Valley, there is a haunting waterfall that oozes red brine like a bleeding wound