Skip to main content
WIRED
Search
Search

Science

Measles Strikes a Florida Elementary School With Over 100 Unvaccinated Kids

Nearly 11 percent of the students aren't fully immunized, prompting concerns of broader infection.
Stainless Steal

Metal Prices Are Soaring. So Is Metal Theft

Green Mile

The Transport Companies Leaving Fossil Fuels Behind

Health

Kyiv Is Using Homegrown Tech to Treat the Trauma of War

Millions of Ukrainians are suffering the mental health implications of two years of Russian bombs and shells. The country’s recovery depends on building systems to help treat the trauma.

A Virus Found in Wastewater Beat Back a Woman’s ‘Zombie’ Bacteria

Viruses called phages are a promising treatment option for bacterial infections when antibiotics stop working, but they have limitations.

Smoking Alters Your Immune System for Years After You Quit

By switching genes on and off, cigarettes have a long-lasting effect on immunity, and appear to shape your immune system just as much as aging.

23andMe Is Under Fire. Its Founder Remains ‘Optimistic’

23andMe’s CEO Anne Wojcicki has saved the genetics company from the brink of failure before. She sat down with WIRED to talk about where it goes from here.

Space

NASA’s New PACE Observatory Searches for Clues to Humanity’s Future

They may be tiny, but phytoplankton and aerosols power pivotal Earth systems. Scientists are about to learn a whole lot more about them at a critical time.

NASA Engineers Are Racing to Fix Voyager 1

A computer glitch has put the future of humanity’s farthest-flung space probe in doubt.

Two Nations, a Horrible Accident, and the Urgent Need to Understand the Laws of Space

Welcome to the world’s foremost training ground for saving space from disasters, disputes, and—perhaps one day—colonizers named Musk.

Dr. Nergis Mavalvala Helped Detect the First Gravitational Wave. Her Work Doesn’t Stop There

The dean of MIT’s School of Science embraces skepticism and failure, and she wants the next generation of scientists to jump right in.

Environment

Fake Caviar Invented in the 1930s Could Be the Solution to Plastic Pollution

An alternative to environmentally-harmful plastic is already within reach: seaweed.

Farming Prioritizes Cows and Cars—Not People

Farmers and scientists are getting better at growing more crops on less land, but they’re not focusing on plants that people eat.

Wild Animals Should Be Paid for the Benefits They Provide Humanity

Healthy ecosystems in developing countries sequester carbon, regulate the weather, and help plants grow thousands of miles away. Wealthier countries benefit from these services—and so should pay for them to be maintained.

Did Climate Change Help This Skier Achieve the Impossible?

A slalom skier just achieved a remarkable result in the Alpine Ski World Cup—coming from last place to win. As mountains get warmer and conditions less predictable, expect more freak occurrences like this.

Climate

Los Angeles Just Proved How Spongy a City Can Be

As relentless rains pounded LA, the city’s “sponge” infrastructure helped gather 8.6 billion gallons of water—enough to sustain over 100,000 households for a year.

Tech Still Isn’t Doing Enough to Care for the Environment

Priscilla Chomba-Kinywa, CTO of Greenpeace, says technology firms must shape up—and consumers and business clients should walk away if they don’t.

All That Rain Is Driving Up Cases of a Deadly Fungal Disease in California

Valley fever is thriving as California swings widely between drought and flooding.

Ocean Temperatures Keep Shattering Records—and Stunning Scientists

Sea surface temperatures have been skyrocketing beyond expectations. That may be a bad sign for hurricane season—and the health of ocean ecosystems.

Energy

These States Are Basically Begging You to Get a Heat Pump

You need a heat pump, ASAP. Now nine states are teaming up to accelerate the adoption of this climate superhero.

The US Has Big Plans for Wind Energy—but an Obscure 1920s Law Is Getting in the Way

The Biden administration aims to deploy offshore wind turbines capable of generating 30 gigawatts of power by 2030. With less than a decade to go, the country remains woefully behind target.

The Last-Ditch Effort to Stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline

The gas pipeline stretching across Virginia and West Virginia is over budget and behind schedule, with a lot of hard work left to do. Opponents hope that makes fossil fuel companies think twice about building the next one.

Global Emissions Could Peak Sooner Than You Think

Global deployment of solar and wind power, plus a surge in EV sales, means emissions from fossil-fuel-derived energy will finally hit the downward slope.

Physics and Math

Google’s Chess Experiments Reveal How to Boost the Power of AI

By rewarding computers that combined different approaches to solve chess puzzles, Google created an enhanced AI that could defeat its existing champion, AlphaZero.

A Celebrated Cryptography-Breaking Algorithm Just Got an Upgrade

Two researchers have improved a well-known technique for lattice basis reduction, opening up new avenues for practical experiments in cryptography and mathematics.

How to Guarantee the Safety of Autonomous Vehicles

As computer-driven cars and planes become more common, the key to preventing accidents, researchers show, is to know what you don’t know.

Why Is Our Solar System Flat?

It started as a big old ball of dust, so how did it end up like a giant pancake? Our resident physicist tells the true story using fake forces.

Biotech

A Startup Has Unlocked a Way to Make Cheap Insulin

Houston-based rBIO has invented a new process to churn out insulin at higher yields using custom-made bacteria.

Elon Musk Says a Human Patient Has Received Neuralink’s Brain Implant

Details are scarce, but Neuralink cofounder Elon Musk says initial results are “promising.”

6 Deaf Children Can Now Hear After a Single Injection

Several gene therapies aim to restore a protein necessary for transmitting sound signals from the ear to the brain.

Scientists Will Test a Cancer-Hunting mRNA Treatment

Strand Therapeutics has figured out a way to turn the molecule on and off in certain tissues to more precisely treat tumors.

Robots

Meet the Next Generation of Doctors—and Their Surgical Robots

Don't worry, your next surgeon will definitely be a human. But just as medical students are training to use a scalpel, they're also training to use robots designed to make surgeries easier.

AI Is Building Highly Effective Antibodies That Humans Can’t Even Imagine

Robots, computers, and algorithms are hunting for potential new therapies in ways humans can’t—by processing huge volumes of data and building previously unimagined molecules.

This Artificial Muscle Moves Stuff on Its Own

Actuators inspired by cucumber plants could make robots move more naturally in response to their environments, or be used for devices in inhospitable places.

Get Ready for 3D-Printed Organs and a Knife That ‘Smells’ Tumors

Hospitals are evolving at warp speed, and autonomous surgical robots are just the beginning.

Psychology and Neuroscience

They Had PTSD. A Psychedelic Called Ibogaine Helped Them Get Better

Ibogaine, a plant-based psychoactive drug, drastically reduced symptoms of depression and PTSD in veterans with traumatic brain injuries.

It's Time to Log Off

There’s a devastating amount of heavy news these days. Psychology experts say you need to know your limits—and when to put down the phone.

Dr. Ann McKee Is on a Quest to Save Humanity’s Brains

The medical community's leading authority on traumatic brain injuries wants to make contact sports—which she loves—safer for everyone.

How Cinematherapy Helped Me Through a Midlife Crisis

Yes, there is a therapeutic basis for “watching movies to heal,” but only if you do it the right way. Here's how.

Latest