Volume 98, Issue 1, of the Yale Scientific Magazine arrives at a time of escalating attacks on science both in academia and in public life across the United States. At the time of printing, thousands of scientists have been forced out or fired from jobs at federal agencies, and billions of dollars in federal science funding have been cut or frozen. The funding cuts, as well as proposed restrictions on how universities can spend on overhead costs, threaten the ability of institutions like Yale...| Yale Scientific Magazine
A recent study from the Francis Crick Institute in London has taken a key step in explaining how the human body takes shape in its earliest stages. The researchers behind the study focused on modeling the formation of the spine and notochord, a slender, rod-like structure that acts as a kind of GPS for a developing embryo. The notochord sends signals to surrounding cells, guiding them on where to move and what type of tissue to develop into. Together, these structures lay the foundation for t...| Yale Scientific Magazine
Extreme weather events are devastating to humanity. Disasters like Hurricane Helene and the 2025 California wildfires heavily impacted human populations, destroying homes and displacing hundreds of thousands of families. What becomes of our primate cousins, however, when they befall similar fates? | Yale Scientific Magazine
Unless you’re sitting at the dinner table or browsing through the grocery store aisles, chances are you’re not thinking about mollusks, the group of animals that includes clams and squid. Yet, for paleontologists like Mark Sutton, Julia Sigwart, and Derek Briggs, two newly described specimens, Punk ferox and Emo vorticaudum, could not be more worthy of attention. The newly described species rocked the researchers’ minds and bridge the gaps defining their field’s current understanding ...| Yale Scientific Magazine
While you might assume that black holes are, well, black, there is a small class of black holes that are oxymoronically bright. Named because they were originally mistaken for distant stars, these quasi-stellar objects, or quasars, are supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies in the early universe that are actively and violently devouring gas. This accretion process produces large amounts of radiation that astronomers can observe and measure, providing insights into the environment...| Yale Scientific Magazine
