News

  1. Planetary Science

    Oversize Orb: Puffy planet poses puzzle

    Astronomers have discovered what may be the largest planet ever found, an orb 36 percent wider than Jupiter that circles a nearby star.

    By Ron Cowen
  2. Humans

    Grounded Epidemic: Reduced air travel after 9/11 slowed flu spread

    The perennial winter-flu season developed more gradually than usual in the United States in the months after September 11, 2001, because of a reduction in air travel following that day's terrorist attacks.

    By Ben Harder
  3. Animals

    Family Tree: An arboreal genome is sequenced

    Researchers have sequenced the genome of a tree for the first time.

    By Christen Brownlee
  4. Anthropology

    Scripted Stone: Ancient block may bear Americas’ oldest writing

    A slab of stone found by road builders in southern Mexico may contain the oldest known writing in the Americas, although some scientists regard the nearly 3,000-year-old inscriptions cautiously.