Science

Why happiness is not the best indicator of well-being

Achieving values and pursuing growth is the real secret to a fulfilled life.

Jason Crawford

How Arc Institute is bringing science into the century of biology

Stephen Johnson

A vibrant graphic illustration featuring a large leafy plant with integrated plant sensors, comic-style speech bubbles containing exclamation marks, and a round bubble depicting ants, set against a blue textured background.

Agriculture

Plant sensors could act as an early warning system for farmers

Using sensors made from carbon nanotubes, researchers discovered signals that help plants respond to stresses like heat, light, or attack.

Anne Trafton | MIT News Office

Animals

Scientists figure out why tardigrades are nearly indestructible

Tardigrades have been frozen, boiled, exposed to extreme doses of radiation, and remarkably still survive. How?

Philip Perry

A black and white photo of a person in a hospital bed.

Brain

Study finds CPR patients may frequently have near-death experiences

In a study of CPR patients across the US and UK, researchers found new evidence about near-death experiences.

B. David Zarley

Oceans

In the turbulent Drake Passage, scientists find a rare window where carbon sinks quickly into the deep ocean

The Drake Passage is one of the most turbulent ocean regions on Earth, but exploring it could help scientists understand how carbon sinks.

Lilian (Lily) Dove

Animals

Macaque monkeys shrink their social networks as they age — just like elderly people

Macaque monkeys reduce their social networks as they get older – research suggests evolutionary roots of the same pattern in elderly people.

Noah Snyder-Mackler and Erin Siracusa

Planet Earth

Why Earth is the only planet with plate tectonics

Here in our Solar System, of all the known planets, only Earth — not Mercury, not Venus, and not Mars — possesses plate tectonics.

Ethan Siegel

Oceans

Drone discovers weird underwater volcano off California

An un-crewed sailing drone has discovered an unusually shaped underwater volcano, called a seamount, off California.

B. David Zarley

Genetics

Harvard geneticists create an organism that is immune to all viruses

Researchers at the Harvard lab of George Church have genetically engineered E. coli resistant to viral infection.

B. David Zarley

Agriculture

Detailed images from space offer clearer picture of drought effects on plants

Researchers are using remote sensing observations to build high-resolution systems to monitor drought from space.

Carolyn Blais | Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab

Physics

Quantum entanglement just got a whole lot weirder

Normally seen with identical particles, entanglement has just been demonstrated between particles with opposite charges.

Ethan Siegel

Physics

How Einstein tried to model the shape of the Universe

Two years after proposing his general theory of relativity, Einstein endeavored to find the shape of the Universe.

Marcelo Gleiser

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