Science

Advocates push for greater investment in long COVID research at Senate hearing

5:09pm January 20, 2024

by Will Stone

Four years after the first known case of COVID-19 in the United States, long COVID remains a mystery to scientists. Medical experts called for more research funding at a Senate hearing Thursday.

Global buzzwords for 2024: Gender apartheid. Climate mobility. Mega-election year

12:32pm January 19, 2024

by Andrew Connelly

2024 will be awash in new (and sometimes familiar) buzzwords that point up the polycrises (another buzzword) around the planet. Here's a guide for the perplexed.

A two-paper investigation published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health finds that pediatric care for nonwhite children is universally worse across the United States.

Kids of color get worse health care across the board in the U.S., research finds

7:45pm January 18, 2024

by Maria Godoy

From neonatal and primary care to emergency medicine, kids got lower-quality care than their white peers, researchers found. Disparities include longer waits and less pain medication for broken bones.

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The SORA-Q robot is a sphere that can split and elongate, allowing it to traverse the moon's surface.

A transforming robot is about to land on the moon, where it will die

4:34pm January 18, 2024

by Bill Chappell

A Japanese space agency manager calls it "a breathless, numbing 20 minutes of terror!" The process includes ejecting a robot onto the lunar surface, to take photos of the moon lander.

This image shows a 'close-up' of the galaxy GN-z11 as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope, superimposed on top of another image marking the galaxy's location in the sky.

Science

James Webb Telescope detects earliest known black hole — it's really big for its age

11:15am January 17, 2024

by Ari Daniel

Data from the James Webb Space Telescope indicate that a galaxy known as GN-z11 has a supermassive black hole at its center — one that's far more massive than astronomers expected.

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A rendering of Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis, a newly identified relative of T. rex. A partial skull on view at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science was key to the discovery.

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An old relative of the T. rex sparks new questions about the dinosaur's origins

5:00am January 15, 2024

by Emma Bowman

Researchers say they've identified the oldest known Tyrannosaurus, shaking up the ongoing debate over how and when the dinosaurs arrived in North America.

United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41D at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Jan. 8, 2024, carrying Astrobotic's Peregrine Lunar Lander. After suffering a propellant leak, the lander now appears to be destined to burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

Peregrine moon lander heads back toward Earth and should burn up in the atmosphere

2:06pm January 14, 2024

by Joe Hernandez

The mission was to be the first time an American company sent a spacecraft to the moon — and the first time the U.S. returned to the lunar surface in more than 50 years.

A street painting in Mumbai, India, reinforces the importance of masks amid a surge of COVID. The photo was taken on January 11.

Coronavirus FAQ: Are we in a surge? How do you cope if your whole family catches it?

7:41am January 13, 2024

by Max Barnhart

Are we in a surge? How would we know? Is winter now "COVID season?" And what do you do if your whole family got the coronavirus over the holidays? We tackle readers' coronavirus questions.

This week in science: A moon mission, galaxy radio waves and tracking fishing boats

8:56pm January 11, 2024

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Regina Barber and Geoff Brumfiel of Short Wave about a new moon mission, a global map of fishing ships, and mysterious rings of radio waves.

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Newer blood tests can help doctors diagnose Alzheimer's disease without a brain scan or spinal tap. But some tests are more accurate than others.

Blood tests can help diagnose Alzheimer's — if they're accurate enough. Not all are

5:00am January 11, 2024

by Jon Hamilton

A new generation of blood tests can help doctors diagnose Alzheimer's without a brain scan or spinal tap. But only a few perform as well as traditional tests.

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