Cooper's hawks are skilled hunters that feast on small and medium-sized birds.

A Young Cooper’s Hawk Learned to Use a Crosswalk Signal to Launch Surprise Attacks on Other Birds

Researcher Vladimir Dinets watched the bird repeatedly sneak behind a row of cars to ambush its unsuspecting prey

Before the eruption, scientists saw a wide variety of ocean life around the Tica hydrothermal vent.

Scientists Stumbled Upon an Active Volcanic Eruption in a Mid-Ocean Ridge for the First Time Ever

From a research submersible, scientists saw hardened lava, dead tube worms and orange flashes from an eruption in the East Pacific Rise

Matteo Paz with Caltech President Thomas F. Rosenbaum after winning the Regeneron Science Talent Search award.

High School Student Discovers 1.5 Million Potential New Astronomical Objects by Developing an A.I. Algorithm

The 18-year-old won $250,000 for training a machine learning model to analyze understudied data from NASA’s retired NEOWISE telescope

Hong Wang, one of the paper co-authors, presents her work on the Kakeya conjecture.

Mathematicians Solve Decades-Old Geometry Problem About Spinning a Needle That Had Long Puzzled the Field

A new proof solves the “Kakeya conjecture” in three dimensions, opening up a new set of possibilities for mathematics, from computer science to cryptography

"Torpedo bats," like the one shown here used by New York Yankees player Jazz Chisholm Jr., have a slightly bulbous shape that's similar to a bowling pin.

Trending Today

The Science Behind the MLB ‘Torpedo’ Bats That Everyone’s Talking About—How Do They Work? And Are They Really Better?

Developed by a physicist, these bats have their widest part, called the barrel, closer to the player’s hands to offer a better chance of hitting the ball on their “sweet spot”

A gold-green sweat bee lands on a common boneset flower in Hull, Massachusetts. The bee is a pollen generalist, visiting a wide range of plants.

This Intrepid Team of Bee Lovers Are Doing Everything They Can to Save Rare Native Species From Extinction

Iridescent sweat bees, hairy-faced mining bees, tiny Perdita minima the size of a gnat. Thanks to swarms of apiary enthusiasts, native species are finally getting the buzz they deserve

Field zoologist Andrew Rapp caught an adult female Appalachian grasshopper on the side of the road in Augusta County, Virginia.

Biologist Spots Rare, Flightless Grasshopper in Virginia for the First Time in Nearly 80 Years

The last time anyone in the state had officially documented the Appalachian grasshopper was in 1946, and the species was once thought to be extinct

A new study suggests lab mice will open the mouths and pull on the tongues of their unconscious companions.

Lab Mice Appear to Offer ‘First Aid’ Care to Their Unconscious Companions, Even Pulling on Their Tongues

A new study finds that mice will sniff, lick and pull the tongue of other mice that are under anesthesia, serving to open their airways

Crater Peak (photographed here on February 7, 2025) is the most likely site of a future Mount Spurr eruption.

‘Volcanic Unrest’ at Alaska’s Mount Spurr Suggests 50-50 Chance an Eruption Could Be Coming

Volcanologists are closely monitoring the 11,070-foot-tall stratovolcano, located roughly 75 miles from Anchorage, after a recent uptick in earthquakes

By studying seismic waves, researchers are revealing more about the mysterious nature of our planet's inner core.

Earth’s Inner Core Is Changing Shape, Study Finds, Indicating Even More Dynamic Shifts Deep Within Our Planet

Seismic wave data previously suggested the Earth’s hot inner core is slowing its spin. Now, researchers say it’s also deforming around the edges

Parts of the deep Pacific Ocean are covered in metallic lumps known as polymetallic nodules. A study published last year suggested they produce oxygen without sunlight.

Scientists Who Found Mysterious ‘Dark Oxygen’ on the Ocean Floor Plan a New Expedition, Hoping to Settle Disputes

Last year, the team made headlines when it published a paper describing how metal lumps at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean seemed to produce oxygen without sunlight

An illustration of Prototaxites in the early Devonian landscape, roughly 400 million years ago.

Giant, Mysterious Spires Ruled the Earth Long Before Trees Did. What Exactly Are These Odd-Looking Fossils?

For more than 150 years, scientists have debated whether Prototaxites—which stood roughly 24 feet tall and 3 feet wide—were an early lichen or fungus, like a “giant mushroom”

A map of bathymetry—or underwater topography—of Axial Seamount, an active volcano some 300 miles off the coast of Oregon.

An Undersea Volcano Near Oregon May Erupt in 2025, Scientists Predict. It Could Help Improve Eruption Forecasts

Axial Seamount doesn’t pose a threat to humans, but observing what happens before and after its potential eruption could help scientists learn about submerged volcanoes and strengthen predictions

A California ground squirrel carries a vole in its mouth after hunting the rodent.

Squirrels Are Displaying ‘Widespread Carnivorous Behavior’ for the First Time in a California Park, New Study Finds

The familiar rodents, known for eating nuts and seeds, have been spotted hunting and decapitating voles in a gruesome dietary adaptation. Scientists say it might signal resiliency in face of future environmental pressures

Last week, scientists conducted the first-ever dissection of a spade-toothed whale, the rarest whale species on Earth.

Scientists Just Dissected the World’s Rarest Whale in New Zealand. Here’s What They Found

Only seven spade-toothed whales have ever been identified, and the species has never been seen alive. After one washed ashore last summer, researchers have made new discoveries—including that the animal had nine stomach chambers and vestigial teeth

DNA on Earth is built from sugars with a property known as right-handedness. Though left-handed sugars aren't used by any known life, scientists can create them—but now, researchers say they shouldn't.

Scientists Warn of an ‘Unprecedented Risk’ From Synthetic ‘Mirror Life,’ Built With a Reverse Version of Natural Proteins and Sugars

So-called mirror cells could rampage through our ecosystems, food supply and immune systems, experts say, potentially without existing barriers to protect against them

Two ivory-billed woodpeckers in one of the historic photographs that Arthur Allen captured in the field in 1935.

The Hero Who Convinced His Fellow Ornithologists of the Obvious: Stop Shooting Rare Birds and Watch Them Instead

Too late to save the ivory-billed woodpecker, Arthur Allen changed science forever with his seemingly simple idea

King Arthur's Hall in Cornwall was named for the legendary leader of the Round Table.

New Research

Historians Thought This Was a Medieval Site Linked to King Arthur. It Turned Out to Be a Mysterious Monument Built 4,000 Years Earlier

Researchers have excavated King Arthur’s Hall, a rectangular enclosure in southwest England, and determined that it dates to at least 3000 B.C.E.

Jonathan Shapiro, a Vermont-based wilderness instructor and certified “specialist” tracker on the East Coast, during an evaluation in the California desert.

Even as A.I. Technology Races Ahead, the Prehistoric Science of Wildlife Tracking Is Making a Comeback

Humans perfected how to identify wild animals over millennia, and now biologists are rediscovering the exceptional worth of the tracks and marks left behind

The researchers examined eight Iranian swords in their study.

New Research

These Iron Age Swords Were Smuggled Out of Iran and Modified to Increase Their Value on the Black Market

Using advanced imaging techniques, researchers discovered modern glue, drill holes and even a fragment of a drill bit in the pastiches

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