COSMOLOGY | ALL TOPICS

Dark Energy May Be Weakening, Major Astrophysics Study Finds

By CHARLIE WOOD

A generation of physicists has referred to the dark energy that permeates the universe as "the cosmological constant." Now the largest map of the cosmos to date hints that this mysterious energy has been changing over billions of years.

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ASTRONOMY

How the Ancient Art of Eclipse Prediction Became an Exact Science

By JOSHUA SOKOL
Video by EMILY BUDER

The timing of the total eclipse on April 8, 2024, will be known to within a second, thousands of years after fearful humans first started trying to anticipate these cosmic events.

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ALGEBRAIC GEOMETRY

Merging Fields, Mathematicians Go the Distance on Old Problem

By ERICA KLARREICH

Mathematicians have illuminated what sets of points can look like if the distances between them are all whole numbers.

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Related:
Old Problem About Mathematical Curves Falls to Young Couple
By Jordana Cepelewicz (2022)

NEUROSCIENCE

Overexposure Distorted the Science of Mirror Neurons

By MEGHAN WILLCOXON

After a decade out of the spotlight, the brain cells once alleged to explain empathy, autism and theory of mind are being refined and redefined.

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Related:
These Cells Spark Electricity in the Brain. They're Not Neurons.
By Laura Dattaro (2023)

QUANTA SCIENCE PODCAST

Inside Scientists' Life-Saving Prediction of the Iceland Eruption

By ROBIN GEORGE ANDREWS
Podcast hosted by SUSAN VALOT

The Reykjanes Peninsula has entered a new volcanic era. Innovative efforts to map and monitor the subterranean magma are saving lives.

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