Exhibits at science museums around the country showcase the vastness of geologic time, whale evolution, life in ancient Maya civilization, and the mathematics hidden in nature.
At the center of the newly released telescope image is HL Tau, a star located about 450 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. A dense disk of gas and dust surrounds the star, which is a youthful million years old.
A newfound particle will allow scientists to probe the universe’s strongest force.
It’s going to take a different kind of mental approach to travel to Mars and back: less individuality, more collaboration and adaptability. Astronauts are being tested to prepare for such a mission.
Strange orbits in the Kuiper belt revive talk of a Planet X in the solar system.
Jet-lagged bacteria in the gut impair mice’s metabolism, causing obesity and diabetes-related problems.
Human gut tissue transplanted into a mouse can grow into a working intestine that doctors could use to test disease treatments.
Modern Britons may be more closely related to Britain’s indigenous people than they are to the Anglo-Saxons, a new genetic analysis finds.
With help from bacteria, plants could one day clean up polluted sites.
An MRI-like machine can scan an individual proton, raising prospects that a similar technique could eventually image biological molecules one by one.
A 45,000-year-old Siberian bone provides genetic clues about the timing of interbreeding between ancient humans and Neandertals.
During a dinosaur scuffle 147 million years ago, a stegosaurus whipped an allosaurus in the crotch.
Methane in Ohio groundwater comes from biological sources, such as bacteria, not fossil fuel exploration.
Travel and retail websites alter search results depending on whether consumers use smartphones or particular web browsers.
Genetic ties among present-day populations point to sea crossings centuries before European contact with Easter Island.
Losing the Y chromosome in blood cells may bring on cancer and shorten men’s lives.
Two archaeological sites in the Andes indicate that hunter-gatherers inhabited extreme altitudes earlier than previously thought.
Kids in Europe and Australia are slightly more active in longer-lit evenings, a new study shows.
Researchers treated C. difficile infections in mice with a closely related bacteria that blocks C. difficile growth.
A fossil hints at the unusual series of events that led to an ancient jellyfish’s preservation and may offer clues to understanding odd sand deposits found elsewhere.
More than four years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, scientists find that oil is still lingering over a large area on the seafloor.
In a study of 60,000 Swedes, drinking three or more classes of milk a day was associated with higher chances of death, cancer and hip fractures.
Low levels of oxygen may have hindered evolution of animal life hundreds of millions of years ago.
A second chytrid fungus described last year targets salamanders and may be spreading in the animal export trade.
CT scans reveal trilobites with two-lane digestive tracts.
Remote-controlled rovers get close to skittish penguins without bothering them; a chick disguise wins over the wariest birds.
An iridium atom sets the record for highest oxidation state at +9.
The Rosetta spacecraft’s minifridge-sized lander Philae is now on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and is beginning to study its geology and chemistry.
Tiny Tetragonula bees don’t sting but have strong jaws. The bees fight by biting a combatant and not letting go.
Fifty years ago, the United States turned its eyes toward Mars and set a goal of sending humans as soon as possible.
The dinosaurs were killed off some 65 million years ago after a colossal asteroid struck Earth. But what many people probably don’t know is how paleontologists came to that conclusion. "Mass Extinction: Life at the Brink" tells that story.
