A mammoth tusk boomerang from Poland is 40,000 years old

The boomerang is a one-of-a-kind find from the last place archaeologists expected. [...]

Central American Beaches Are Being Overrun With Local and Foreign Plastic

A study of plastic bottles washed up on the Pacific coast of Latin America has identified a double problem—a mass of local waste combined with long-traveling bottles from Asia. [...]

Aurora Borealis May Hit These 16 States Over the Next 2 Days

Tuesday night's aurora is expected to be stronger than Wednesday's. [...]

Feeling Hoarse? You Might Have the New ‘Stratus’ Covid Variant

The World Health Organization has added the variant, known formally as XFG, to its monitoring list. A dry, irritated throat is among its main symptoms. [...]

A North Atlantic Right Whale Baby Boom Is On—but the Species Remains at Risk

Researchers have documented the births of nearly two dozen North Atlantic right whale calves this season. It’s an encouraging sign for a species whose population is estimated to be below 400. [...]

New study maps how AI models think and where their reasoning breaks down

A large analysis of more than 170,000 reasoning traces from open-source reasoning models shows that large language models rely heavily on simple, default strategies when tasks get harder. A new cognit [...]

Paradromics Gets FDA Approval to Trial Its Brain Implant in People

The Austin-based startup will test its high-bandwidth device to help restore speech in people with extremely limited movement. [...]

Researchers develop a new process to get lithium out of rocks

If it scales up, it can help us diversify our sources of a key element. [...]

New evidence that some supernovae may be a “double detonation”

It may be possible to blow up a white dwarf before it reaches a critical mass. [...]