On March 29, 2023, the crowds of the NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam vibrated with excitement as the first-ever meatball comprised of woolly mammoth meat — grown in a lab using mammoth DNA from the long-extinct species — sat on display.The mammoth meat was created from myoglobin proteins made by Vow, an Australian biotechnology company. Though not intended for human consumption, the meatball still sparked a dialogue about eating extinct cultured meat.“Cultured meat products [are] expected ...read more

The oldest verified human to walk the Earth was a French woman named Jeanne Louise Clement, who nearly spent time in three centuries over her 122 years from 1875 to 1997, according to the Guinness World Records.Most of us won’t be that lucky, but life expectancy has increased greatly in just a few decades due to modern health practices, sanitation and other factors. But what was the life expectancy of ancient humans?The answer is nearly impossible to answer in most cases due to the lack of det ...read more

This story was originally published in our May/June 2023 issue as "Far & Away." Click here to subscribe to read more stories like this one.On July 19, 2021, 10 days after leaving Cape Town, South Africa, the MFV Edinburgh finally sighted land. The ship had sailed west toward Rio de Janeiro, though it was never headed there. Its destination was Tristan da Cunha, an island smaller than the city of Boston that lies roughly halfway between Africa and South America, in the middle of the South A ...read more

This story was originally published in our May/June 2023 issue as "Making Waves." Click here to subscribe to read more stories like this one.On Feb. 11, 2016, scientists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) unveiled the first direct detection of gravitational waves — produced, in this case, by the merger of two black holes, 1.3 billion light-years away. The announcement (and accompanying scientific paper) came 100 years after Albert Einstein’s 1916 prediction t ...read more

Colorectal cancer among adults 50 and younger has increased in the last three decades. Although the disease is still rare among younger adults, researchers question whether the spike is related to the rising popularity of ultra-processed foods (UPFs).Scientists are paying more attention to UPFs, and their findings are becoming mainstream. One study in Cell Metabolism, for example, made headlines after researchers found that participants lost weight after two weeks of eating minimally pro ...read more

If you’re plagued by sneezing, wheezing, or red, watery eyes whenever you’re around a feline friend, you’re not alone. An estimated 10 to 20 percent of us have a cat allergy, and there’s evidence that the number is increasing.But if you also revel in the cuteness of cats, you may be wondering whether there’s an allergy loophole (or even cure-all) somewhere out there. The detailed answer isn’t a definitive “yes” or “no” — but rather somewhere in between.What Are Allergies?Al ...read more

Since astronomers first laid eyes on the interstellar object known as ‘Oumuamua in October of 2017 at the Pan STARRS telescope in Hawaii, it's strange behavior and mysterious origins have sparked speculation and debate. The interstellar object appears to have originated from outside of our solar system. 'Oumuamua MeaningThe unique 'Oumuamua name was given by the International Astronomical Union after the Hawaiian phrase “a messenger from afar arriving first.” And nearly five years after i ...read more

Early residents of the Tibetan Plateau, one of the least hospitable places on earth, survived in large part by consuming large amounts of dairy products, according to a new study that chipped away at ancient teeth.Sometimes referred to as the world’s Third Pole, the Tibetan Plateau is beset by dry, cold, unpredictable conditions that would have made life tough for the humans who lived there some 3,600 years ago. Conditions would have stymied efforts to raise crops, such as the barley raised in ...read more

Partway down the list of household dinosaur names, you may know the pachycephalosaurus.Even if you don’t recognize that formality, the dome-shaped head of this creature is notorious, much thanks to its combative force in the Jurassic Park franchise. But plenty of aspects of this dinosaur remain elusive to experts.Pachycephalosaurus FactsThe pachycephalosaurus is the largest in a group of bone-headed dinosaurs, pachycephalosaurids, made up of around 20 species, says Aaron Dyer, a paleontologist ...read more

Just last month, an image of Pope Francis in a stylish, white Balenciaga puffer jacket quickly went viral, convincing thousands that the pontiff was ready for a night on the town. Days before, another series of photos surged across social media, showing the arrest of former president Donald Trump at the hands of riot-gear-clad New York City police officers.There’s just one catch: The images were completely fake. AI-Generated PhotosThese viral sensations were produced by artificial intelligence ...read more