Will Sullivan

Will Sullivan

 

Will Sullivan is a science writer based in Washington, D.C. His work has appeared in Inside Science and NOVA Next.

Female mosquitoes need to drink blood in order to produce their eggs.

Male Mosquitoes May Have Once Sucked Blood, Amber Fossils Suggest

Today, only female mosquitoes feed on the blood of animals, while males are satisfied with plant juices

Researchers studied brainstem activity of mice while the animals were awake and eating.

Scientists Examine Brain Cells That Control How Much Mice Eat

The study—the first to look at these neurons while animals are awake and consuming food—could tell us about our own appetites

A group of gray wolves in Canada. Before a wolf pack recently migrated to Colorado, gray wolves were last known to live in the state in the 1940s.

Colorado Will Reintroduce Endangered Gray Wolves This Month

In 2020, voters narrowly passed a measure in favor of wolf reintroduction, and now, wildlife officials are about to begin the controversial effort

A De Winton's golden mole. A member of the species hadn't been definitely seen since 1936.

Scientists Uncover a Golden Mole Species Thought to Be 'Possibly Extinct'

A scent-detecting dog led the team to the discovery in South Africa, and traces of mole DNA helped confirm it

For the inner four planets in this solar system, each planet orbits the sun three times for every two orbits of the planet immediately to its outside. For the fourth, fifth and sixth planets, they orbit four times for every three orbits of its outer neighbor.

Astronomers Discover Rare Solar System Where Planets Orbit in Mathematical Harmony

The "resonant" planets could provide insight about how such systems form and evolve—and why our own solar system is not synced up

An artist's rendition of the detection of the cosmic ray by the Telescope Array experiment. When high-energy cosmic rays reach Earth's atmosphere, they collide with and break apart atomic nuclei, creating a shower of particles that is picked up by detectors on the ground.

Scientists Mystified by Rare, High-Energy Cosmic Ray, the Most Powerful Since 1991

Researchers have been unable to locate an obvious source for the particle—it seems to have traveled from an empty spot in space

An iceberg breaks off the Knox Coast in the Australian Antarctic Territory in 2008. The moving iceberg scientists are now tracking broke off from Antarctica in 1986.

The World's Largest Iceberg Is Drifting Three Miles Into the Ocean Each Day

The iceberg, which naturally broke off Antarctica in 1986, had remained grounded for decades before moving again in recent years

A new musical piece is based on this composite image of the center of the Milky Way. The bright spot on the right is hot gas in infrared light, marking the approximate location of the galaxy's supermassive black hole.

Listen to the Center of the Milky Way Translated Into Sound

A new musical composition represents data from three NASA telescopes as a piece that was performed by an orchestral ensemble

An oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Officials spotted an oil slick three to four miles wide off the coast of Louisiana last Thursday.

Oil Spill Dumps as Much as 1.1 Million Gallons Into Gulf of Mexico, Raising Concerns About Wildlife

The U.S. Coast Guard is still searching for the specific source of the leak, which occurred last week

Experts recommend that dog owners make sure their pets are up to date on their vaccines and reducing their contact with large numbers of other dogs. 

Hundreds of Dogs Across the U.S. Are Falling Ill With Unknown Respiratory Illness

Researchers are not sure whether a virus or bacteria is causing the pets' ailments

The Starship rocket on April 17, 2023, ahead of its first test flight. During the uncrewed flight, the booster failed to detach from the spaceraft and the rocket was intentionally exploded.

What to Know Ahead of SpaceX's Second Starship Test Flight on Saturday

Atop the most powerful rocket ever built, the spacecraft is intended to carry astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon's surface and Mars in the future

A candlelit vigil on January 13, 2022, in Washington, D.C., for nurses who died during the Covid-19 pandemic. A new study finds that Covid-19 was the leading reason for a growing gap in life expectancy between U.S. men and women from 2019 to 2021.

Women Now Live Nearly Six Years Longer Than Men in the United States

Disparities from Covid-19 and opioid overdose deaths are major contributors to the widening gap, according to a new study

The first color photo of the Martian surface, taken in 1976 by the Viking 1 probe. To survive on Mars' surface, astronauts will need oxygen, which only exists in trace amounts in the Martian atmosphere.

A Robotic 'A.I. Chemist' Could Make Oxygen on Mars

In a lab on Earth, the machine created a catalyst from Martian materials that can extract oxygen from water, for astronauts to breathe or use as fuel

The small fishing village of Grindavík, which officials evacuated late last week as a precaution in advance of a likely volcanic eruption in the area.

Iceland Braces for a Likely Volcanic Eruption as Earthquakes Increase

The country's Reykjanes Peninsula has been experiencing swarms of seismic activity for weeks, as magma accumulates beneath the surface

The number of African elephants, which are endangered, has been declining in recent years due to factors including habitat loss and poaching. A new study identifies a bacterium that could also continue to pose a threat to the elephants.

Bacteria to Blame for Elephant Deaths in Zimbabwe

Researchers are just now uncovering what may have killed 35 of the animals three years ago

The galaxy cluster Abell 2744, which lies in front of the galaxy containing the newly discovered black hole

Astronomers Spot the Oldest Black Hole Ever Seen, Shedding Light on the Early Universe

Dating to just 470 million years after the Big Bang, the ancient cosmic structure could help researchers understand how the first black holes formed

Euclid's image of the Perseus Cluster, a group of galaxies 240 million light-years from Earth. The view includes about 1,000 galaxies in the cluster, with more than 100,000 additional ones in the background.

See the First Dazzling Images From the Euclid Space Telescope

The European Space Agency's observatory will map one-third of the sky over six years in a mission to understand the universe's dark matter and dark energy

Magnets can levitate over superconductors, which expel a magnetic field.

Paper That Claimed a Room-Temperature Superconductor Breakthrough Is Retracted by the Journal 'Nature'

The discovery, which would have revolutionized energy, was surrounded in controversy from the start

The asteroid sample that is now on display at the National Museum of Natural History. By studying the retrieved space rocks, scientists aim to better understand how water and organic material first arrived on Earth.

How to See NASA's Bennu Asteroid Sample in Person

A tiny piece of the space rock made its public debut at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, as scientists study the rest of the sample

The pair of asteroids, captured by NASA's Lucy spacecraft on November 1, 2023, from around 270 miles away.

NASA Finds a Surprise Second Asteroid During a Flyby Mission

While testing its tracking system, the agency's Lucy spacecraft discovered that Dinkinesh is not one space rock, but two

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