Headlines

What can singing mice say about human speech?

Speech is a crowning achievement of human evolution, the skill that separates us from every other animal. So, it would stand to reason that evolving this capability required some enormous leap in brain complexity. A study published in Nature suggests otherwise.

How to build cities for wildlife, not just people

In central Seoul, South Korea, a motorway once covered a buried urban stream. Today, that same stretch has been uncovered—a process known as daylighting—and this river is home to plants, fish and insects. This flowing water cools the city in summer and attracts tens of

A persistent quantum computing error finally explained

Scientists have discovered the cause of a persistent glitch that continues to disrupt superconducting quantum computers, even when they have built-in defenses. For all their advanced hardware, superconducting quantum computers are vulnerable to errors caused by ionizing

New AI method tackles one of science’s hardest math problems

Penn researchers have developed a smarter AI method for solving notoriously difficult inverse equations, which help scientists uncover hidden causes behind observable effects. By introducing “mollifier layers” that smooth noisy data, they’ve made these calculations more stable

Common knee surgery found ineffective, may make things worse

A major 10-year clinical trial is turning one of the world’s most common knee surgeries on its head. Researchers found that trimming a damaged meniscus—a procedure long believed to relieve pain—offers no real benefit over placebo surgery. Even more surprising, patients who had

Oak trees are delaying spring to starve caterpillars

Oak trees have a surprising trick to fight back against hungry caterpillars: they simply wait. When trees are heavily attacked one year, they delay leaf growth by just three days the next spring—long enough to leave newly hatched caterpillars with nothing to eat. This small

AI lets chemists design molecules by simply describing them

Creating complex molecules usually requires years of experience and countless decisions, but a new AI system is changing that. Synthegy lets chemists guide synthesis and reaction planning using simple language, while powerful algorithms generate and evaluate possible solutions.