A photo provided by Ape Initiative shows Kanzi, a bonobo living at the Ape Initiative in Des Moines, Iowa, was able to play make-believe with researchers studying the ape imagination. In a playtime experiment, scientists found that apes, our closest living relatives, have the capacity for make-believe, too. (Ape Initiative via The New York Times)  By ALEXA ROBLES-GIL Having an imaginary friend, playing house or daydreaming about the future were long considered uniquely human

Engineer Paul Anker checks on the supply of hot water for a drilling operation at Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica, Jan. 30, 2026. An attempt to drill through Thwaites Glacier is foiled; scientists lost their instruments within Antarctica’s most dangerously unstable glacier, though not before getting a glimpse at the warming waters underneath. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times) By RAYMOND ZHONG A daring attempt to study Antarctica’s fast-melting Thwaites Glacier collapsed over t

A photo provided by Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró shows Veronika, a 13-year-old cow in Austria that has demonstrated using different ends of a wooden broom to scratch different parts of her body. This is the first scientifically documented case of tool use in cows, researchers say. (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró via The New York Times) By EMILY ANTHES For a cow, Veronika has had what might be considered an idyllic life. She lives in a picturesque town in Austria, surrounded by snow-cap

They drew with crayons, possibly fed on maggots and maybe even kissed us: Forty millenniums later, our ancient human cousins continued to make news. (John P. Dessereau/The New York Times) By FRANZ LIDZ Neanderthals, who flourished across Eurasia for hundreds of thousands of years before vanishing around 40,000 years ago, had a notable return to the scientific spotlight in 2025. More than a dozen high-profile scientific studies explored all sorts of aspects of their existence,

The Artemis II rocket rolls out to the launchpad from the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Cassandra Klos/The New York Times) By KENNETH CHANG Reid Wiseman, a NASA astronaut selected in 2011, said Saturday morning that a few days ago he looked up and saw the crescent moon in the light of the sunrise. He thought about the far side of the moon — the part that is always hidden from Earth. “You just think about a

In an undated image provided by Gonzalo Ignazi, a puma and penguins in the Patagonia region of South America. In Argentina, the return of pumas brought top predators back to the landscape — much to penguins’ dismay. (Gonzalo Ignazi via The New York Times) By ALEXA ROBLES-GIL Penguins throughout the southern seas have to worry about being picked off by seals or hunted by orcas. On land, they can find safety in numbers. But in the Patagonia region of Argentina, the flightless s

An image provided by University of British Columbia (A.Trites), Dalhousie University (S. Fortune), Hakai Institute (K. Holmes), Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (X. Cheng) shows researchers near killer whales in waters off British Columbia, Canada. (University of British Columbia, Dalhousie University, Hakai Institute, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research via The New York Times) By ALEXA ROBLES-GIL In the waters off British Columbia, an unusual partn

A wary red-footed tortoise in Casanare, Colombia, June 26, 2024. Long dismissed as unintelligent, reptiles are emerging as cognitively and emotionally complex animals — a new study involving tortoises suggests that they also possess mood states. (Federico Rios/The New York Times) By BRANDON KEIM Should you meet a turtle basking on a log in the sun, you might reasonably conclude that the turtle is in a good mood. Granted, there has been little scientific evidence that reptiles