Stories by Timmy Broderick

Coral trysts by moonlight in French Polynesia, polluted Antarctic wilderness, mummified bees in Portugal, and more in this month’s Quick Hits

Participants who smelled odors while they slept performed better on word-recall tests

Glasses that provide subtitles for conversations could be a boon to people with hearing loss

Scientists are now growing mycelium, the fungal root network, into fire-retardant sheets to provide a safer, nontoxic way to protect buildings

An astronomy festival in Italy opted to make all of its events and workshops multisensory. They wanted to see whether sound, touch and smell can, like sight, transmit the wonders of the cosmos.

In 2014, a blind astronomer “sonified” the universe’s most explosive event: a gamma-ray burst. By listening to, rather than looking at, the data, she made a critical discovery and changed the field of astronomy.

Space is famously silent, but astronomers and musicians are increasingly turning astronomical data into sound as a way to make discoveries and inspire people who are blind or visually impaired.

Telecommunications grids are vulnerable to worsening climate disasters—which highlights the importance of one age-old survival system

Ancient poop pathogens in Israel, Peru’s millennia-old El Niño preparations, a halt to Icelandic whale hunting, and much more in this month’s Quick Hits

Nanoparticles can allow long-term freezing of transplant organs

Fears of “social contagion,” used to support anti-transgender legislation, are not supported by science

This 150-year-old tree has been a cultural hub for Hawaii’s town of Lahaina for centuries

Scientists have developed a new model to predict how much “gravity waves” could alter a star’s brightness

By inhibiting part of rats’ brain stem, scientists may have found the play center of the brain

Archaeologists found evidence of spices such as turmeric and cloves from ancient Vietnam, suggesting South Asians shared their culinary traditions via an ancient maritime trade route

The Barbie movie’s plastic pink world might not be that fantastic in real life

Russia and other nations are working on “sovereign Internet” systems that threaten digital rights—and the stability of the global Internet 

Satellites and other technologies are spurring a new revolution in volcanic activity monitoring

Experts explain why tick-borne illnesses are increasing in the U.S. and offer tips to prevent bites

Arousal without orgasm isn’t dangerous, so why are people pressured to engage in unwanted sexual activity to avoid it?

Turning astronomical data into sound rather than images can inspire blind and visually impaired people—and maybe lead to some discoveries, too