NASA chief blasts Boeing, space agency for failed Starliner astronaut mission NASA's Jared Isaacman slammed Boeing for failures with its Starliner spacecraft, which was deemed unsafe to return its crew of two astronauts from the International Space Station Brendan Byrne
Scientists analyzed bottle residue from ancient Rome. They found human feces Archeologists found evidence that ancient Romans may have used a medical treatment involving perfume... and human feces. Ari Daniel
This week in science: Mental health and chatbots, ultrarunning and intermittent fasting NPR's science podcast Short Wave talk about how ultrarunning affects the body, the trend of intermittent fasting and how to protect people's mental health when they talk with chatbots. Mary Louise Kelly
Baby chicks link certain sounds with shapes, just like humans do A surprising new study shows that baby chickens react the same way that humans do when tested for something called the "bouba-kiki effect," which has been linked to the emergence of language. Nell Greenfieldboyce
That ain't perfume! Ancient bottle contained feces, likely used for medicine Researchers found a tiny bottle from ancient Rome that contained fecal residue and traces of aromatics, offering evidence that poop was used medicinally more than 2,000 years ago. Ari Daniel
Mass grave sheds light on 7th century plague In modern-day Jordan, a 1500-year old mass grave sheds light on the lives of people affected by the Plague of Justinian. Durrie Bouscaren
This form of mental exercise may cut dementia risk for decades A study finds that people who did one specific form of brain training in the 1990s were less likely to be diagnosed with dementia over the next 20 years. Jon Hamilton
Surprise shark caught on camera for first time in Antarctica's near-freezing deep Many experts had thought sharks didn't exist in the frigid waters of Antarctica. The Associated Press
AI is helping individual scientists, study suggests — but not science Artificial intelligence is helping researchers advance their careers and drill deeper into specific questions, but it is not necessarily benefiting science on the whole. Katia Riddle
Why do humans kiss? Matilda Brindle, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Oxford, explains. Emily Kwong