Ancient Footprints Push Back Date of Human Arrival in the Americas

Human footprints found in New Mexico are about 23,000 years old, a study reported, suggesting that people may have arrived long before the Ice Age’s glaciers melted.

The New Science on How We Burn Calories

How could that change our understanding about, for starters, chronic disease, aging and obesity?

Is an Exoskeleton Suit in Your Future?

Scientists are developing devices and clothing that make running and walking easier and more enjoyable.

What We Think We Know About Metabolism May Be Wrong

A new study challenges assumptions about energy expenditure by people, including the idea that metabolism slows at middle age.

A Woolly Mammoth’s Tusks Reveal a Map of Where It Roamed in Life

The technique used to reconstruct the animal’s 28-year journey across prehistoric Alaska could solve mysteries about the demise of the elephant-like mammals.

Squirrel Acrobats Are as Smart as They Are Athletic

Picking a launch spot, sticking a landing, throwing in a little parkour and recovering from mistakes: Squirrels do it all.

Trash Parrots Invent New Skill in Australian Suburbs

Sydney’s clever and adaptable sulfur-crested cockatoos learn how to pry open garbage bins by watching one another.

NASA Releases First Detailed Map of the Insides of Mars

NASA’s InSight mission revealed Mars’s inner workings down to its core, highlighting great differences of the red planet from our blue world.

You’re Missing Microbes. But Is ‘Rewilding’ the Way to Get Them Back?

The science behind the idea of restoring the intestinal microbiome to an ancestral state is shaky, skeptics say, and in some cases unethical.

Cauliflower and Chaos, Fractals in Every Floret

Scientists take a crack at recreating the hypnotic fractal spirals of the Romanesco cauliflower.

A New Kind of Ice That Bends Like a Noodle Without Breaking

Perfect crystals of ice microfiber showed the flexibility of a material we usually assume to be rather brittle.

It’s Cold in the Ocean but It’s Hotter Inside Sea Otters

To stay warm in frigid seas, the marine mammals rely on an unexpected use of the powerhouses of their cells.

Cauliflower and Chaos, Fractals in Every Floret

Scientists take a crack at recreating the hypnotic fractal spirals of the Romanesco cauliflower.

Sharks Almost Went the Way of the Dinosaurs 19 Million Years Ago

Analysis of the fossil record shows a mysterious mass extinction that decimated the diversity of sharks in the world’s oceans, and they’ve never fully recovered.