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How to Tell if a Giant Manta Is Pregnant? Give Her an Ultrasound.

ALEXA ROBLES-GIL

Scientists managed to confirm pregnancies in three giant mantas with underwater ultrasound scans, offering clues to the animals’ elusive reproductive habits.

Spacecraft will swarm asteroid Apophis during fateful 2029 Earth flyby

Space agencies around the globe are coordinating missions to visit the asteroid Apophis during a close encounter with Earth in 2029

Bipartisan Anger Grows at Pentagon’s Delayed ‘Forever Chemicals’ Cleanups

HIROKO TABUCHI

Hundreds of bases are contaminated with PFAS, which are linked to low birth weight and other risks. Politicians from both parties are demanding explanations.

Mission to Save Falling NASA Space Telescope Suffers Setback

KENNETH CHANG

A spacecraft meant to push NASA’s Swift Observatory to a higher orbit malfunctioned and started tumbling several days ago. Engineers think it can still succeed.

Military Testosterone Policy Raises Questions About Its Links to Aggression

AZEEN GHORAYSHI

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s call for a “High-T military” raises questions about testosterone’s effect on aggression in some men.

‘This Is Very Strange’: Ancient Smallpox May Have Been Less Deadly

CARL ZIMMER

Scientists have found smallpox viruses in the remains of people in Chile from around 500 years ago, revealing how the virus may have evolved into a global killer.

A City With a Plan

ALEXANDER NAZARYAN

Cincinnati wants to take in people fleeing climate disasters. Plus, the latest on fires in Europe.

Fauci Pleads the Fifth, Refusing to Answer Questions on Covid Origins at Senate Hearing

SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Senator Rand Paul said the committee he leads would vote next week on whether to hold Dr. Fauci in contempt of Congress.

The untold science and drama of Lewis and Clark’s expedition

Historian Craig Fehrman unpacks the science, politics and human stories behind one of America's most famous expeditions

How to surf on Saturn’s moon Titan

Lakes of liquid methane on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, could offer exhilarating—and terrifying—opportunities for otherworldly surfing

Secret eruption offers tantalizing glimpse of underwater volcanoes

Frothy rock floating on the ocean near Papua New Guinea is the sign scientists needed that, hidden from view, an underwater volcano was erupting

Chilean mummies reveal a lost lineage of smallpox

Centuries-old DNA that was found in these mummies belongs to an extinct viral lineage of smallpox that was brought across the Atlantic during European colonization of the Americas

How flowers shaped the world as we know it

David Haskell brings readers through millions of years of botanical history for his latest book, How Flowers Made Our World

Everyone alive may carry DNA from a ‘ghost lineage’ of human ancestors

Scientists analyzing modern genomes may have found a long-lost branch of the human family tree

3 charts show how extreme heat is costing us hours of lost sleep

The U.S. has been pummeled with heat waves this summer. Here's how hot overnight temperatures can get in the way of a good night's rest—in 3 charts