A split-second pause can make the difference between gold and grief. Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images At the Winter Olympics, skiers, bobsledders, speedskaters and many other athletes all have to master one critical moment: when to start. That split second is paramount during competition because when everyone is strong and […]

Heart failure affects millions of people around the world. Yuichiro Chino/Moment via Getty Images Around 64 million people worldwide suffer from heart failure, and nearly half die within the first five years of diagnosis due to a lack of effective treatments to stop the disease from getting worse. Heart failure

Human scientists lay the foundations for every scientific breakthrough. Qi Yang/Moment via Getty Images Consistent with the general trend of incorporating artificial intelligence into nearly every field, researchers and politicians are increasingly using AI models trained on scientific data to infer answers to scientific questions. But can AI ultimately replace

There’s a scientific reason your OJ tastes funny after you brush your teeth. JGI/Tom Grill/Tetra Images via Getty Images It’s a mistake you hopefully only make once. In your morning rush to get ready, you brush your teeth before you head to the kitchen and down a big glass of

Modern winter jackets use a few time-honored physics principles to keep you warm. Magda Indigo/Moment via Getty Images As the weather grows cold this winter, you may be one of the many Americans pulling their winter jackets out of the closet. Not only can this extra layer keep you warm

A baby chimp can grab a stick equally well with its fingers and its toes. Anup Shah/Stone via Getty Images One of my favorite activities is going to the zoo where I live in Knoxville when it first opens and the animals are most active. On one recent weekend, I

While research on human-pig chimeras is on an indefinite pause, xenotransplantation is moving ahead. wildpixel/iStock via Getty Images Plus In a Maryland operating room one day in November 2025, doctors made medical history by transplanting a genetically modified pig kidney into a living patient. The kidney had been engineered to

Using lightweight tools, Eric Gilbertson hikes the world’s tallest mountains to measure their heights. Elijah Gendron In the middle of a chilly October night in 2025, my two friends and I suited up at the Cottonwood Creek trailhead and started a trek into the Sangre de Cristo mountains of Colorado.

The lacy frond of the intermediate wood fern (Dryopteris intermedia). Jacob S. Suissa, CC BY-ND There are few forms of the botanical world as readily identifiable as fern leaves. These often large, lacy fronds lend themselves nicely to watercolor paintings and tricep tattoos alike. Thoreau said it best: “Nature made

Modern wolves and dogs both descend from an ancient wolf population that lived alongside woolly mammoths and cave bears. Iza Lyson/500px Prime via Getty Images Dogs were the first of any species that people domesticated, and they have been a constant part of human life for millennia. Domesticated species are

The work of seeking and synthesizing information can improve understanding of it compared to reading a summary. Tom Werner/DigitalVision via Getty Images Since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, millions of people have started using large language models to access knowledge. And it’s easy to understand their appeal: Ask

Inuit people such as these Greenlanders have evolved to be able to eat fatty foods with a low risk of getting heart disease. Olivier Morin/AFP via Getty Images Many people believe that we humans have conquered nature through the wonders of civilization and technology. Some also believe that because we