Finding life beyond the Earth would be a major scientific discovery with significant implications for all areas of science and human thought. Yet, only one direct search for extraterrestrial life has ever been conducted.

Even if you don’t recall many facts from high school biology, you likely remember the cells required for making babies: egg and sperm. Maybe you can picture a swarm of sperm cells battling each other in a race to be the first to penetrate the egg.

You’ve probably encountered images in your social media feeds that look like a cross between photographs and computer-generated graphics. Some are fantastical – think Shrimp Jesus^[1] – and some are believable at a quick glance – remember the little

Artificial intelligence systems are thirsty, consuming as much as 500 milliliters of water^[1] – a single-serving water bottle^[2] – for each short conversation^[3] a user has with the GPT-3 version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT system. They use roughly the same

For decades, astronomers have wondered what the very first stars in the universe were like. These stars formed new chemical elements, which enriched the universe and allowed the next generations of stars to form the first planets.

The first stars^[1] were

Portable air cleaners aimed at curbing indoor spread of infections are rarely tested for how well they protect people – and very few studies evaluate their potentially harmful effects. That’s the upshot of a detailed review^[1] of nearly 700 studies that