Humans Love Fireflies. Maybe Too Much.
Growing tourism could be a gift or a curse for lightning bugs.
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Radim Schreiber The Science Writer Every Science Nerd Wants You to Read
A visit with David Quammen, who confronted in COVID a story that refused to stay at a safe distance
Photograph by Alexis Joy Hagestad for The Atlantic The Worst Animal in the World
Every year, as many as 400 million people are infected with life-threatening diseases by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. It wasn’t always so dangerous.
Melanie Lambrick Giant, Mysterious Blobs Are Lurking at the Edge of Earth’s Core
Some seismologists think two massive anomalies under Africa and the Pacific are made of ancient, smoldering rock.
Olena Shmahalo / Quanta Magazine Visiting the Mysterious Fairy Circles of the Namib Desert
In the landscape where Mad Max: Fury Road was filmed, a scientist is trying to understand a natural phenomenon that has eluded explanation for decades.
AI Keeps Mastering Games, But Can It Win in the Real World?
The challenges of moving bots off the chess board and into the mess of life
Laura Lezza / Getty Using AI to Find a Cosmic Looking Glass
The automation of astronomy has only just begun—and there's no telling where it will end.
The Scientific Legacy of a City Poisoned by Mercury
Decades after its waters were declared safe, Minamata, Japan, still lives with the effects of its namesake disease.
David Guttenfelder / AP The Black-Hole Hunter Peering Into the Heart of Our Galaxy
An astrophysicist wants to test what happens when things get too close to a dense, dark lump at the center of the Milky Way.
John Hook / Quanta Magazine The Countless Computers Embedded in Nature
An evolutionary biologist studies how flocks of birds, slime molds, networks of neurons, and other biological collectives jointly process information.
Gabriella Marks / Quanta Magazine
