Stories by Stephanie Pappas

A new simulation shows black holes ripping apart and consuming their accretion disk in a matter of months, which may explain why some quasars quickly brighten and dim

In theory, physicists knew that antimatter should behave just like matter under gravity’s pull. But until now, no one had ever seen it happen

Physicist John Cardy and his colleague just won the 2024 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. We spoke with Cardy about conformal field theory, 2D black holes and coffee filters

A new NASA instrument allows researchers to view the bright and permanently shadowed portions of the moon’s Shackleton Crater at the same time

A new interpretation of Isaac Newton’s writings clarifies what the father of classical mechanics meant in his first law of motion

A study of 27,500 patients in the U.K.’s health system suggests that getting people into mental health treatment faster is a huge boon of online therapy

Thousands of usually solitary octopuses gather to brood eggs in a special spot off California

The “button dogs” of TikTok seem to be learning human words. What’s really going on?

Researchers have discovered a pattern where diamonds spew from deep beneath Earth’s surface in huge, explosive volcanic eruptions

A new type of chemistry performed at very cold temperatures on very small particles enables quick, precise reactions

Enormous hailstones raise the question of whether global warming will intensify hailstorms

Here’s the science on whether naps have short- and long-term benefits for your health

The attentive and endearing doggy head tilt might indicate your pup is trying to process what you’re saying

Researchers have found a subtle signal that occurs two hours before major quakes, hinting that earthquake prediction is inching closer to possibility

Stars fueled by the self-annihilation of dark matter might have been spotted for the first time by JWST

Kids don’t typically advance academically during the summer, but the research isn’t clear on whether they forget what they’ve already learned

The vagus nerve is the key information expressway between the brain and most internal organs. So what happens in the vagus nerve can impact the entire body

The disk of our galaxy was long thought to produce these ghostly high-energy particles, but they haven’t been detected until now

Wildfires can have mental health impacts, both among those who are directly affected and those who find themselves under a blanket of smoke

Animals have been catching z’s for at least half a billion years. Here’s the first evidence of an animal sleeping

Here’s how to read the Air Quality Index and protect yourself from unhealthy air

Mass shootings are causing widespread anxiety among Americans. A new screening tool could identify those who are impacted enough to need mental health support

Killer whales in a group near Spain and Portugal may be teaching one another to mess with small boats. They sank their third vessel earlier this month

Kissing probably predates Homo sapiens as a species, but the first texts documenting the beso go back to the early Bronze Age