Author: James Anderson

If you think you have your egg-boiling technique down to a science, there is still a chance you haven’t prepared the “perfect” boiled egg. Boiling an egg flawlessly is challenging because the albumen — or egg white — and the yolk have different compositions, requiring them to be cooked at varying temperatures to achieve ideal taste and consistency. But now, scientists say they have officially cracked the code with a technique known as periodic cooking. This new method involves alternating the eggs between hot and lukewarm water cycles to optimally cook the albumen and yolk simultaneously without separating them, according to…

With curly whiskers and wavy, light hair that grows three times longer than that of an ordinary lab mouse, the genetically modified rodent embodies several woolly mammoth-like traits, according to Colossal Biosciences. The private Dallas company is behind efforts to resurrect the mammoth and other extinct animals. Colossal said its woolly mouse would enable its scientists to test hypotheses about the link between specific DNA sequences and physical traits that enabled the mammoth, which went extinct around 4,000 years ago, to adapt to life in cold climates. “It is an important step toward validating our approach to resurrecting traits that have…

Like nostalgia-evoking songs, objects can help us feel like we’ve preserved a moment in time. After our wedding last Sunday, my husband and I were already anticipating how we might relive our special day years down the road. Photos and videos captured so many moments, like our vows that mirrored an appreciation for the stars (points to the groom for working in syzygy). A keepsake we especially treasure is a blue flower crafted by my nephew, complete with a charm displaying our initials. And it made me wonder: What stories will objects left behind tell about humanity one day? Two paleontologists…

Japanese cuisine wouldn’t be the same without miso — but astronauts wanting use the fermented soybean staple in space one day might have to get used to a difference in taste. An experiment on board the International Space Station (ISS) has produced miso paste, thought to be the first food deliberately fermented outside Earth — a feat that scientists hope will shed light on the potential for life to exist in space, and broaden the culinary options for astronauts. The “space miso” had a similar umami, or savoriness, to miso made on Earth. But according to the researchers who sampled…

A German start-up’s orbital rocket spun out and crashed seconds after take-off Sunday, in a rare European test flight that the makers said “met its set goals.” The flight, from a spaceport in northern Norway, marked the first time a rocket capable of reaching orbit was launched from continental Europe excluding Russia, manufacturer Isar Aerospace said. The rocket, called Spectrum, was airborne for only around half a minute before dramatically falling into the chilly Norwegian Sea. Isar Aerospace and other European start-ups are scrambling to seize a segment of a rapidly expanding space race, currently dominated by companies and government-owned entities in…

Scientist Dr. Randal Voss gets the occasional reminder that he’s working with a kind of superstar. When he does outreach events with his laboratory, he encounters people who are keen to meet his research subjects: aquatic salamanders called axolotls. The amphibians’ fans tell Voss that they know the animals from the internet, or from caricatures or stuffed animals, exclaiming, “‘They’re so adorable, we love them,’” said Voss, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. “People are drawn to them.” Take one look at an axolotl, and it’s easy to see why it’s so popular. With their wide eyes,…

In the 1931 movie “Frankenstein,” Dr. Henry Frankenstein howling his triumph was an electrifying moment in more ways than one. As massive bolts of lightning and energy crackled, Frankenstein’s monster stirred on a laboratory table, its corpse brought to life by the power of electricity. Electrical energy may also have sparked the beginnings of life on Earth billions of years ago, though with a bit less scenery-chewing than that classic film scene. Earth is around 4.5 billion years old, and the oldest direct fossil evidence of ancient life — stromatolites, or microscopic organisms preserved in layers known as microbial mats —…

SpaceX on Monday launched its latest mission for paying customers: This time, a Crew Dragon spacecraft is carrying a cryptocurrency billionaire and three guests on a dayslong trip that will orbit directly above Earth’s North and South poles — a feat never attempted before. The mission, called Fram2, launched from SpaceX’s facilities at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida around 9:46 p.m. ET. Spearheading the Fram2 mission is Malta resident Chun Wang, who made his fortune running Bitcoin mining operations and paid SpaceX an undisclosed sum of money for this trip. Joining him are a trio of other polar exploration…

e Parker Solar Probe zoomed by the sun on Tuesday during a record-breaking flyby, coming within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the solar surface during humanity’s closest approach to a star. The mission operations team, located at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, was able to confirm the success of the flyby Friday morning after receiving a signal from the spacecraft just before midnight on Thursday. The mission team knew it wouldn’t receive any communications from the spacecraft during its closest pass of the sun. Now, the team members will await more detailed data from Parker about…

Sales of existing homes in the US fell last year to the lowest level in almost three decades, as sky-high home prices and elevated mortgage rates squeezed home buyers. Sales of previously owned homes, which make up the vast majority of the market, totaled 4.06 million in 2024, the National Association of Realtors said Friday. That’s the lowest level since 1995 and slightly below 2023’s similarly anemic levels. The average rate on a conventional, 30-year fixed mortgage reached a peak of 7.22% last year. After briefly slipping to nearly 6%, it has ratcheted up in recent weeks, reaching 7.04% last week and…