“I’m a digital clone,” says a young man. He smiles and blinks. “If you’re curious about how this all works or have any questions, feel free to ask.” This clone…

Artificial intelligence, or AI, tools are great for handling boring tasks. Like going through thousands of job applications and pulling out the most promising ones. So companies often use AI…

Say you’re an archaeologist, and you’re studying an ancient skeleton, pair of pants or piece of poop. You want to know just how old that object is, so you can…

In The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Frodo Baggins travels through the Dead Marshes on his way to fulfill his quest: to destroy a very powerful ring. As…

Some 6,500 light-years from Earth lurks a zombie star. It’s cloaked in long tendrils of hot sulfur. Skywatchers saw this star go supernova nearly 900 years ago. No one knows…

Regolith (noun, “RAY-go-lith”) Regolith is the layer of loose rocks and dust on the surface of moons, asteroids and rocky planets — including Earth. This blanket of fine material comes…

The sniffs we take to identify a smell last from one to three seconds. But is it possible for us to detect odor changes in an even shorter time? Yes,…

A soft, thick coat of snow makes a lot of the world seem to slow down or even stop — at least temporarily. The fluffy piles absorb sound and make…

In the TV series ​​Doctor Who, ​​treeborgs supply fresh air to spaceship passengers. Part tree, part robot, these devices convert starlight into oxygen. In ​​Nnedi Okorafor’s novel Zahrah the Windseeker,…