‘Elusive’ profiles the physicist who predicted the Higgs boson
Peter Higgs, as Frank Close reveals in his new book, was just one of many physicists who helped crack the mystery of mass’s origins.
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Cover Story
How physicists are probing the Higgs boson 10 years after its discovery
The famous particle may point to cracks in the standard model and new physics beyond.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Archaeology
Lasers reveal ancient urban sprawl hidden in the Amazon
South America’s Casarabe culture built a network of large and small settlements in what’s now Bolivia centuries before the Spanish arrived.
Notebook
Life
High altitudes may be a climate refuge for some birds, but not these hummingbirds
After being moved to a spot high above their typical home, Anna’s hummingbirds seemed to struggle to hover in the thin air.
Features
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How scientists are shifting their search for links between diet and dementia
Studies of food’s impact on Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are hampered by complexity. Scientists hope new research approaches prove more fruitful.
More Stories from the July 2, 2022 issue
- Plants
These are the first plants grown in moon dirt
The first attempt to grow plants in Apollo samples from the moon shows the promise and potential struggles of farming in lunar soil.
- Chemistry
Scientists made a Möbius strip out of a tiny carbon nanobelt
A twisted belt of carbon atoms joins carbon nanotubes and buckyballs in the list of carbon structures scientists can create.
- Computing
The world’s fastest supercomputer just broke the exascale barrier
The Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee clocked in at more than 1.1 quintillion calculations per second.
- Climate
Ancient penguin bones reveal unprecedented shrinkage in key Antarctic glaciers
Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers are losing ice faster than any other time in the last 5,500 years. That history is written in bones and shells.
- Science & Society
How having health care workers handle nonviolent police calls may impact crime
A new study analyzes a Denver program that sends a mental health professional and EMT to handle trespassing and other minor crime offenses.
- Planetary Science
Samples of the asteroid Ryugu are scientists’ purest pieces of the solar system
Samples Hayabusa2 brought to Earth from asteroid Ryugu are far fresher than similar types of meteorites that scientists have found.
- Science & Society
Growing wildfire threats loom over the birthplace of the atomic bomb
Climate change is expected to make wildfires worse across much of the Southwest United States. A key nuclear weapons lab could be in the hot zone.
- Particle Physics
How neutrinos could ensure a submarine’s nuclear fuel isn’t weaponized
Nuclear submarines could be monitored with the help of neutrinos to ensure that the fuel isn’t diverted to nuclear weapons programs
- Anthropology
A Denisovan girl’s fossil tooth may have been unearthed in Laos
A molar adds to suspicions that mysterious hominids called Denisovans inhabited Southeast Asia's tropical forests.
- Animals
An ‘acoustic camera’ shows joining the right boy band boosts a frog’s sex appeal
Serenading with like voices may help male wood frogs woo females into their pools, analysis of individual voices in a frog choir shows.
- Earth
50 years ago, a new theory of Earth’s core began solidifying
In 1972, scientists proposed that Earth’s core formed as the planet came together. Fifty years later, that theory is generally accepted, though many mysteries about the core remain.
- Astronomy
A newfound, oddly slow pulsar shouldn’t emit radio waves — yet it does
The highly magnetic neutron star rotates three times slower than the previous record holder, challenging the theorical understanding of these objects.
- Anthropology
A new origin story for domesticated chickens starts in rice fields 3,500 years ago
Chickens, popular on today’s menus, got their start in Southeast Asia surprisingly recently, probably as exotic or revered animals, researchers say.
