Science

An eruption of particles from the sun collided with Earth on Thursday morning. The Space Weather Prediction Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, reported that the solar particles, which were ejected on Tuesday evening, arrived at 11:15 a.m. Eastern time, traveling at nearly 1.5 million miles per …

J. Robert Oppenheimer teemed with contradictions. He was shy and bold, naïve and brilliant, a loyal husband who cheated, a gentle man whose bomb could kill millions. That he loved quantum physics may be no accident. The field holds that some basic phenomena of the material world have opposing features …

John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton received the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for discoveries that helped computers learn more in the way the human brain does, providing the building blocks for developments in artificial intelligence. The award is an acknowledgment of A.I.’s growing significance in the way …

Look up, stargazers: A comet discovered last year is getting brighter as it makes its closest pass by Earth later this week, and this could be humanity’s last chance to see the comet before it disappears into the cosmic depths. The celestial visitor is Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, or C/2023 A3 to …

Comb jellies, the delicate bells that pulse their iridescent bodies through the ocean, are some of the strangest creatures on earth. “They are the aliens of the sea,” said Leonid Moroz, a neuroscientist at the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience in St. Augustine, Fla. The aliens belong to the oldest …

The soil beneath our feet, home to fungi, bacteria, beetles and worms, may not seem like the most jazzy environment. But if you stuck a powerful enough microphone in the soil, you’d be surprised at how hopping it is, acoustically speaking. That has led some microbiologists to wonder: Are there …

Last month, Michele Francis, an environmental scientist at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, relocated to central Connecticut only to discover that her new home showed signs of termite damage. When an exterminator suggested setting out traps, Dr. Francis demurred. “I wondered if I could persuade the termites to eat the …

It may seem like a hopeless place, but locusts find a way to breed in the scorching heat of the Sahara at midday. The biblical voracity of these insects make them among the world’s most destructive pests. They devour agricultural crops in swarms that number in the billions and stretch …

Mount Everest is many things. It’s called Chomolungma in Tibetan, and Sagarmatha in Nepali. It’s an iconic part of Earth’s topography, a potentially lethal climbing challenge and a geologic marvel. It’s also staggeringly tall — and, with a peak 29,032 feet above sea level, it easily achieves the status of …

Baobabs are arboreal icons that have punctuated Africa’s landscapes for around 12 million years. With crowns that can grow as large as three tennis courts, they are important for more than their role in ecosystems. The trees are featured in cultural traditions across Africa, and they also support the livelihoods …