[ad_1] Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has given astronomers an opportunity they rarely expect to receive. Unlike the countless icy bodies that circle the Sun, this object formed around another star before drifting into our solar system, carrying frozen material that has remained largely unchanged for billions of years. After passing closest to the Sun in late…

[ad_1] The asteroid that’s set to drift past Earth this weekend is not the kind of object that usually catches public attention, even in astronomical circles where near-Earth flybys are fairly routine. Still, there are moments when the numbers line up in a way that makes people look twice. A rocky body several times taller…

[ad_1] Democritus (Image: Wikipedia) It is one thing to behave well, and quite another to be good. Most of us can manage not to lie, cheat or steal, especially when someone is watching. But the ancient Greek philosopher Democritus pointed to a deeper kind of goodness. Real goodness, he said, is not merely not doing…

[ad_1] July often arrives with warm evenings that make it easier to spend time outdoors after sunset. For skywatchers, those comfortable nights also coincide with a calendar packed with changing celestial sights. Some are brief encounters lasting only a few hours, while others unfold across several weeks, rewarding anyone willing to look up after dark….

[ad_1] Imagine an animal that began its life centuries before the Roman Empire reached its height and has quietly continued its daily routine ever since. According to recent reports, scientists have identified a giant Caribbean sponge believed to have lived for around 2,300 years, making it one of the oldest animals ever documented. The sponge…

[ad_1] A 23-year-old man from Louisiana has become one of the first people in the United States to be functionally cured of sickle cell disease using Casgevy, the world’s first approved CRISPR-based gene-editing therapy. Daniel Cressy, from Metairie near New Orleans, had lived with the inherited blood disorder since childhood, enduring severe pain crises and…

[ad_1] Most of us have done it at some point. We cram facts before an exam, repeat them back on the page, and forget almost everything within a week. The physicist Richard Feynman saw this happen on a large scale, and it genuinely puzzled him. People, he complained, do not learn by understanding. They learn…