Science Times: Our 10 most popular stories of 2026 so far

July 31, 2026

ALL EYES ON ARTEMIS

Reid Wiseman/NASA, via Associated Press

NASA Unveils 1st Earth Photos From Artemis II: ‘You Look Beautiful.’

NASA’s mission to send people around the moon in April captivated the world. Our Artemis coverage, from launch to moon flyby to splashdown, was the most popular story so far this year.

A group of chimpanzees in a forest, with one ape baring its teeth at another.

Aaron Sandel

These Chimps Began the Bloodiest ‘War’ on Record. No One Knows Why.

A long-running conflict in a Ugandan park may provide clues to the origins of human warfare, and how to avoid it.

By Carl Zimmer

A portrait of Emily Laszlo-Rath, who wears a patterned gown and a knit sweater and poses in a room of her home.

Bethany Mollenkof for The New York Times

She Wanted a ‘Free Birth.’ It Put Her and Her Baby in Grave Danger.

Promoters of free birthing reject any type of medical intervention during pregnancy or delivery. The movement has been trending on social media, but critics warn it poses serious risks.

By Dawn MacKeen

AJ Mast/Bloomberg

Experimental Drug Yields Dramatic Weight Loss

People who got the injection, retatrutide, lost 28 percent of their body weight on average after 80 weeks, Eli Lilly said.

By Gina Kolata and Rebecca Robbins

An image of two skulls, one human and one Neanderthal, tinted blue and inverted, on what appears to be a textured, vintage paper.

Winters860/Alamy

What Your DNA Reveals About the Sex Life of Neanderthals

Most people alive today carry fragments of Neanderthal DNA in their genome. Now scientists are gaining a more intimate understanding of the ancient encounters that put it there.

By Carl Zimmer

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An elevated, wide-angle view of an archaeological site in Egypt at either dusk or dawn.

Maite Mascort i Roca and Esther Pons Mellado, Mission of the University of Barcelona at Oxyrhynchus

Archaeologists Find Egyptian Mummy Buried With the ‘Iliad’

For the deceased of Roman-era Egypt, Greek literature may have offered a cheat code to a more comfortable afterlife.

By Franz Lidz

The New York Times

This Cell Feeds, Grows and Reproduces. And It’s Manmade.

From chemical building blocks, scientists have created synthetic cells that have most of the hallmarks of life.

By Carl Zimmer and Marco Hernandez

Nancy Wexler wears a blue patterned shirt and sits in a wheelchair in a corner of her apartment with large windows, basking in the sun with her eyes closed. A small black-and-white photo in a frame shows her when she was younger, her eyes closed and facing the sky in the smaller photo as well.

Jackie Molloy for The New York Times

The Researcher Who Didn’t Want to Know

Her decades of work on Huntington’s disease helped lead to the creation of a genetic test for the devastating condition. Why didn’t she take it herself?

By Gina Kolata

A dog with a doughnut toy in its mouth pokes through a square shelf that is crammed with colorful dog toys.

Veronica Suen

Dogs Build Their Vocabularies Like Toddlers

Eavesdropping on their owners seems to help some toy-crazy and talented pups learn more words.

By Emily Anthes

Graham Dickie for The New York Times

When My Father’s Canary Flew Away

In the final stages of his dementia, a long-lost memory from childhood returned, perfectly formed. What was going on in his brain?

By Ellen Barry and Graham Dickie

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