If space systems such as GPS were hacked and knocked offline, much of the world would instantly be returned to the communications and navigation technologies of the 1950s. Yet space cybersecurity is largely invisible to the public at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions.Cyberattacks on satellites have occurred since the 1980s, but the global wake-up alarm went off only a couple of years ago. An hour before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, its government operatives hacked Vi ...read more

Drive In movies are few and far between, but the summer blockbuster lives on. In this newsletter, check out our selection of summer citizen science projects paired with the films you’ll want to watch alongside them.Girls Night InFor the aptly named Eat Popcorn for Science project, you'll eat popcorn and watch a movie while contributing to important medical research (Credit: yousafbhutta via Pixabay)You can contribute to scientific research by inviting your friends, or science-curious pet, to w ...read more

Fatal attractions are a standard movie plot line, but they also occur in nature, with much more serious consequences. As a conservation biologist, I’ve seen them play out in some of Earth’s most remote locations, from the Gobi Desert to the Himalayan Highlands.In these locales, pastoralist communities graze camels, yaks and other livestock across wide ranges of land. The problem is that often these animals’ wild relatives live nearby, and huge, testosterone-driven wild males may try to mat ...read more

Only about 600 people have ever traveled to space. The vast majority of astronauts over the past six decades have been middle-aged men on short-duration missions of fewer than 20 days.Today, with private, commercial and multinational spaceflight providers and flyers entering the market, we are witnessing a new era of human spaceflight. Missions have ranged from minutes, hours and days to months.As humanity looks ahead to returning to the Moon over the coming decade, space exploration missions wi ...read more

A paralyzed Superman rose from a wheelchair and walked, during a 2000 Super Bowl commercial. The advertisement drew criticism, because, to some, it promised false hope. The ad’s star, Christopher Reeve — famous for playing the caped superhero in a series of movies — was rendered quadriplegic in a 1995 horse-riding accident. The actor turned activist pushed for more research funding in general, and an end to a ban on embryonic stem cell research in particular.Reeve, who died in 2004, would ...read more

Imagine an ancient mammal that looks like a blend of a pig and an anteater but is more closely related to horses and rhinos. This is the tapir, a fascinating creator that has roamed Earth for tens of millions of years. With their strange prehensile snouts, sturdy bodies, and curious behaviors, tapirs have long intrigued scientists and nature enthusiasts alike. Here, we’ll explore what makes tapirs so unique, their habitats, their diets, and the critical conservation efforts needed to protect t ...read more

Hurricane Beryl was the latest Atlantic storm to rapidly intensify, growing quickly from a tropical storm into the strongest June hurricane on record in the Atlantic. It hit the Grenadine Islands with 150 mph winds and a destructive storm surge on July 1, 2024, then continued to intensify into the basin’s earliest Category 5 storm on record.The damage Beryl caused, particularly on Carriacou and Petite Martinique, was extensive, Grenada Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell told a news briefing. “In ...read more

Every year, the Plastic Free July campaign asks us to refuse single-use plastic. The idea is that making a small change in our daily lives will collectively make a big difference. And hopefully, better behaviour will stick and become a habit.The intent is good, but consumers shouldn’t have to bear full responsibility for plastic pollution. Individual sacrifices – particularly temporary ones – won’t make a significant difference.Governments, manufacturers and retailers need to get serious ...read more

Civilizations rise and fall, and sometimes, they fall on top of each other. Part of the reason that civilizations are born is their location, and over time, that location largely remains the same even though the city it hosts changes.These archeological sites are layered on top of each other, telling the story of one society, its rise, and then the next that came in its place. 1. Pompeii(Credit: Ivo Antonie de Rooij/Shutterstock) Pompeii is well known as a city that was decimated by the eruptio ...read more

Picture an amphibian over 6 feet long, with a suction-cup mouth containing 4-inch fangs in a 2-foot-long skull that holds a ring of smaller, but equally sharp teeth. Such a creature dominated the waters 40 million years before dinosaurs usurped it as a top predator and comes from a lineage once thought to be extinct millions of years before its aquatic reign. This creature, Gaiasia jennyae — which could aptly be named “salamander from hell” — is described in a new report in Nature.“Gai ...read more