Meet the mineral known as the time lord
Zircon is the "time-lords" of the earth. They are indestructible and take up radioactive materials, so they're used to track events in deep time that would otherwise be lost to us.
Science
It's not too late to get a COVID booster — especially for older adults
Public health officials want more Americans to get the latest COVID vaccine booster. Only 35% of people over 65 have gotten the shot, though 75% of COVID deaths are among people in this age group.
Psychedelic drugs may launch a new era in psychiatric treatment, brain scientists say
Psychedelic drugs were a hot topic at this year's Society for Neuroscience meeting. Researchers hope the drugs can help people with disorders like depression and PTSD.
Encore: Researchers in Brazil credit scientific discoveries to the power of sound
The Amazon rainforest is the most biodiverse ecosystem on the planet. Scientists there say the best way to experience it may be with your ears.
The astonishing vanishing act of the glassfrog, revealed
A kind of transparent frog achieves near invisibility by hiding its red blood cells during the day, scientists found. "I had never seen anything like that," researcher Carlos Taboada says.
I usually wake up just ahead of my alarm. What's up with that?
Call it "precision waking" — the alleged ability to decide when you want to wake up and then doing so, without an alarm. If you think you can do it, you're not alone, though how is still mysterious.
Turns out dinosaurs probably didn't roar quite like we think
BBC science journalist Richard Gray tells NPR's Daniel Estrin that dinosaurs may not have roared in the manner we commonly imagine.
How the James Webb Space Telescope transformed astronomy this year
One year ago, on Christmas Day, the James Webb Space Telescope was launched. Since it began collecting data, it has captured - in stunning detail - previously unobservable stars, planets and galaxies.
A new kind of blood test can screen for many cancers — as some pregnant people learn
Testing pregnant people's blood to look at free-floating DNA can tell doctors about the health of the fetus. But these tests sometime turn up DNA that might be shed by cancerous cells.
Can dogs smell time? Just ask Donut the dog
After decades of wondering, an NPR reporter finally figures out how her husband's family dog knew when the school bus would arrive everyday. She did some digging — and now it all makes scents.