Category: Science

Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of T lymphocyte cells (smaller round cells) attached to a cancer cell.  Credit: Steve Gschmeissner/Science Photo Library Advertisement

A healthy, balanced diet is a great way to live to a ripe, old age. But even more important is avoiding being part of someone else’s healthy, balanced diet. Few creatures on this planet enjoy the distinction of sitting on top of their local food chain. Even those that rely on killing others for sustenance must sometimes avoid other, bigger predators; for every great...

A small study uses genetic engineering with the goal of curbing vast stray feline populations. For all the cats who share our homes as companion animals, there is a vast shadow world of strays — a sprawling and fast-breeding crowd. Their lives are plagued by the threat of infectious diseases, predators and fast-moving cars. And they are major predators themselves, hunting down millions of...

Some dinosaurs needed long necks to reach high in the trees, loading their enormous guts with enough roughage to supply a small forest. These were the dinosaurs with the longest necks, so lengthy in stature that their height reached that of a four-story building while standing upright. Giraffes had nothing on these prehistoric skyscrapers. And there were many species of long-necked dinosaurs. While each...

The company is heavily reliant on a cancer drug that could be targeted by a program intended to lower drug prices. The pharmaceutical company Merck on Tuesday sued the federal government over legislation that empowers Medicare for the first time to negotiate prices directly with drugmakers. Merck’s lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, is the drug industry’s most significant move so far to...

Sargassum algae piles up along the shore at a beach in Cancun, Quintana Roo State, Mexico, on May 23, 2023. Credit: Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images Advertisement

Credit: Amanda Montañez; Source: “Excess Mortality and Years of Potential Life Lost among the Black Population in the U.S., 1999–2020,” by César Caraballo et al., in Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 329, No. 19; May 16, 2023 (data) Advertisement

The eruption of Tonga’s Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai underwater volcano on January 15, 2022, which produced a massive plume of smoke, is captured in this image provided by NOAA’s GOES-West satellite. Tsunami warnings stretched across the Pacific Ocean and as far east as the coastline of the continental United States. Credit: NOAA Photo/UPI/Alamy Live News Advertisement

Who are you talking to? IR Stone/Shutterstock People can only tell apart artificial intelligences from humans around 60 per cent of the time, according to a test taken by more than 1.5 million people. The results raise questions about whether the new generation of AIs should have to identify themselves in conversation, say researchers. Computer scientist Alan Turing first proposed a test for machine...

Sure, you know about Central Park and Flushing Meadows. But here are a few more birding locations worth checking out. Birding in New York City is easier than you might think. “The best place to bird in New York is exactly where you are right at that moment,” said Martha Harbison, a writer and vice president of the Feminist Bird Club. “I’ve observed 20...