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Where Animals Come From
Bacteria may have helped single-celled organisms make the leap to multicellular animals.
In Search of Dark Stars
Katherine Freese, a physicist who will soon lead the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics, reflects on the hunt for dark matter and how dark matter heating may have produced the first stars.
The New Science of Evolutionary Forecasting
Newly discovered patterns in evolution may help scientists make accurate short-term predictions.
Hints of Life’s Start Found in a Giant Virus
Newly discovered specimens support a more ancient origin for viruses, perhaps all the way back to the origins of life.
A Bold Critic of the Big Bang’s ‘Smoking Gun’
The cosmologist David Spergel explains why a widely publicized gravitational-wave discovery could be wrong, and how the “overreaching” study could affect the public’s perception of science.
Early-Universe Explorer Looks for Answers
Chao-Lin Kuo, who helped design the experiment that claimed to have found evidence of gravitational waves from the Big Bang, isn’t bothered by criticism that cosmic dust may account for his results.
Fluid Tests Hint at Concrete Quantum Reality
Surprising oil drop experiments suggest that the quantum world may not be as strange as advertised.
The Game Theory of Life
An insight borrowed from computer science suggests that evolution values both fitness and diversity.
In a Grain, a Glimpse of the Cosmos
When scientists traced a museum rock back to its origins, they uncovered mysteries about the early solar system.