Stories by Allison Parshall

Bacteria choose to swarm based on what happened to their great-grandparents

New research on asexuality shows why it’s so important for doctors and therapists to distinguish between episodes of low libido and a consistent lack of sexual attraction

In 2013 a new user named Cleo took an online math forum by storm with unproved answers. Today she’s an urban legend. But who was she? A 2023 editor's pick. 

A striking purple species is one piece of the fungal kingdom’s uncharted diversity

Hotspots beneath cities deform the ground, causing important infrastructure to crack under stress

A surprisingly simple answer to a mathematical puzzle intrigues the math world

Unlikely pollinators in Brazil, climate-resilient coffee in Uganda, credible cryptozoology down under, and more in this month’s Quick Hits

In 2013 a new user named Cleo took an online math forum by storm with unproved answers. Today she’s an urban legend. But who was she?

Here’s how the winners of NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge are making food out of thin air

Chernobyl’s adaptable canines, sewage sea spray in the U.S., hibernating germs on Everest, and much more in this month’s Quick Hits

A fish species recognizes its own face digitally edited onto another fish’s body. What does this mean for self-awareness?

Decades of data support the use and safety of puberty-pausing medications, which give transgender adolescents and their families time to weigh important medical decisions

New technology gleans the gist of stories a person hears while laying in a brain scanner

Mistaken fossil identity in India, decrypted letters of an imprisoned Scottish queen, marsupials seeking marsupials Down Under, and more in this month’s Quick Hits

Chloroplasts’ choreography keeps plant cells powered

Boris Eldagsen submitted an artificial-intelligence-generated image to a photography contest as a “cheeky monkey” and sparked a debate about AI’s place in the art world

Infections of a new strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa that have led to blindness and death highlight the worsening antibiotic resistance crisis

The real-life fungi that inspired TheLast of Us hijack the bodies of ants, wasps, cicadas, and more.

Ancient Maya cities in laser focus, chickens gone wild in Singapore, high-tech drug research in the U.S., and much more in this month’s Quick Hits

A severe geomagnetic storm created auroras that were visible as far south as Arizona in the U.S.

Music made with artificial intelligence could upend the music industry. Here’s what that might look like.

Google’s new AI model can generate entirely new music from text prompts. Here’s what they sound like.

Machine-learning algorithms are getting so good that they can translate Western instruments into Thai ones with ease.

Before exploding as supernovae, massive Wolf-Rayet stars spew gas and dust into space, seeding the formation of future stellar and planetary systems