Science word of the day: Cryptology
Science word of the day: Cryptology Pronunciation: Krip-TAH’-leh-jee What it means: Cryptology is the study of secret codes — both making them (cryptography) and breaking
Category: Science
Giant, milky-green vortex swirls across massive ‘cryptodepression’ lake in Southern Europe — Earth from space
QUICK FACTS Where is it? Lake Skadar, Montenegro and Albania [42.201087364, 19.303135741] What’s in the photo? A giant, milky-green swirl on the lake’s surface Who
Pompeii’s survivors shine in a new documentary series
Hosted by actor Tom Hiddleston, Pompeii: Out of Time mixes facts and fiction to bring three real ancient Romans to life.
AI ‘ghosts’ can comfort mourners — even when the bots get the facts wrong
A small study suggests emotional fit, not perfect accuracy, may make chatbot versions of dead loved ones feel real.
The Organisms That Make Earth’s Harshest Places Home
Life has scarcely found a boundary on Earth that it can’t push. While much of life’s diversity exists in lush, bountiful habitats like tropical rainforests
Our First View of the Surface of Mars
On the morning of July 20, 1976, roughly 40 minutes after mission controllers received word that the Viking 1 lander had successfully touched down on
The bacteria behind gum disease may also harm your heart valves, early research suggests
A common culprit behind severe gum disease may also stiffen and narrow the heart’s aortic valve, preliminary research suggests. This may help explain links between
Mysterious ‘little red dots’ at the beginning time may finally have an explanation, thanks to newfound ‘little blue companions’
After using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to peer back toward the beginning of time, astronomers have proposed a radical new explanation for one
Science word of the day: Heliosphere
Science word of the day: Heliosphere Pronunciation: HEE’-lee-uhs-feer What it means: The heliosphere is the region around the sun that’s affected by the solar wind
In painted caves, ancient human DNA clings to the walls
Scientists recovered ancient human DNA from cave walls for the first time. Refined, the method could help link prehistoric paintings to their makers.
British vial of smallpox scabs triggered the devastating 1789 outbreak among Indigenous Australians, study finds
It’s long been debated what started the 1789 smallpox outbreak that devastated the Indigenous population in Australia. Now, a new modeling study has the likely
‘We were genuinely surprised’: ‘Superworms’ can clean extremely delicate skeletons lickety-split, and that’s a game changer for museums
The skeleton of a wolf or bat you admire at the natural history museum may look pristine, but it wasn’t always that way — there’s
Mummy mask with wig: A 1,000-year-old ‘false head’ found in Peru that was crafted with real human hair and toxic red cinnabar
QUICK FACTS Name: Mummy mask with wig What it is: A carved wooden mask Where it is from: Peru When it was made: Circa 1000
Hubble Sees Swarm of Galaxies
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the galaxy cluster MACS0329-0211.