When a wild orangutan in Sumatra recently suffered a facial wound, apparently after fighting with another male, he did something that caught the attention of the scientists observing him.The animal chewed the leaves of a liana vine—a plant not normally eaten by apes. Over several days, the orangutan carefully applied the juice to its wound, then covered it with a paste of chewed-up liana. The wound healed with only a faint scar. The tropical plant he selected has antibacterial and antioxidant ...read more

Starting with the Space Race of the 20th century, humans have embarked on a journey through time and space with some of the most pioneering and life-changing space missions. As we stand on the cusp of another age of space exploration with the upcoming Artemis missions and other space observatories set to go online this year, here are 15 space missions that not only set the groundwork for the future, but also ignite our curiosity about the universe we inhabit. 1. Sputnik 1 (Credit: NASA/Asif A. S ...read more

While robots with a human touch are still not a common sight, they are slowly appearing in public. For years, recreating the softness sensation of a person’s touch remained the ultimate technological challenge for humanoid robot scientists. Recent innovations effectively address these constraints, showing a glimpse of a future where robots can interact with humans in more advanced ways.Humanoid Robots Are Far From Perfect Robots have long been synonymous with cold, mechanical precision — sou ...read more

Whether it’s stressing about an upcoming deadline, date, or performance, most of us are all too familiar with the encroaching dread of anxiety. In essence, anxiety is our body’s way of telling us to be alert and vigilant, but sometimes our limbic system can go a bit overboard. Anxiety originates in the amygdala, which is the brain’s emotional center, and was once a useful tool in the minds of our Paleolithic ancestors.But that was hundreds of thousands of years ago. Nowadays, most of us ar ...read more

Physicists consider black holes one of the most mysterious objects that exist. Ironically, they’re also considered one of the simplest. For years, physicists like me have been looking to prove that black holes are more complex than they seem. And a newly approved European space mission called LISA will help us with this hunt.Research from the 1970s suggests that you can comprehensively describe a black hole using only three physical attributes – their mass, charge and spin. All the other pro ...read more

Sir Percival Pott, a London physician in 1775, felt sorry for chimney sweeps. They were child laborers who Pott thought were treated cruelly. They were poorly fed, barely clothed, and forced to ascend into sooty chimneys. Too often, Pott saw they were “bruised, burned, and almost suffocated.”In his practice at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, Pott observed a tragic trend among the young chimney sweeps. Many of them suffered from scrotal cancer by the time they reached puberty. Pott connected th ...read more

Why so blue? This most calming color has woven itself into the fabric of our language, and it’s hard to imagine a world without the azure hue of the ocean or sky. However, there’s some evidence to suggest that the people of the past didn’t see the same world that we do, or, at least, didn’t describe it in the same way.Historical records in various languages, from ancient Greek to ancient Hebrew, make no explicit references to blue, despite having terms for other hues like black and red. ...read more

For nearly 200 years, Florence Nightingale’s name has been synonymous with gentle compassion and mercy.In the mid-19th century, Nightingale became perhaps the most celebrated woman of her era – second only to Queen Victoria – for instituting sanitation practices that sharply cut death rates among British soldiers fighting in the Crimean War. A handsome bronze statue in London’s Waterloo Place has immortalized Nightingale as a slight, graceful figure carrying a lamp, the embodiment of sel ...read more

Viruses are a mysterious and poorly understood force in microbial ecosystems. Researchers know they can infect, kill and manipulate human and bacterial cells in nearly every environment, from the oceans to your gut. But scientists don’t yet have a full picture of how viruses affect their surrounding environments in large part because of their extraordinary diversity and ability to rapidly evolve.Communities of microbes are difficult to study in a laboratory setting. Many microbes are challengi ...read more

The ability to simulate the way matter behaves on the atomic scale is revolutionizing materials science and everything related to it. This approach is producing new materials with exotic properties, resilient alloys for nuclear power and a new understanding of protein folding, to name just a few applications.These advances are largely the result of ever more powerful computing machines, which aim to make simulations bigger, faster and longer. That’s the goal but the reality is more nuanced. Mo ...read more