Science News

Previously, some rent-to-own companies would log customers' keystrokes and snap pictures using their webcams. According to a settlement that went into action yesterday (April 15), rent-to-own stores will no longer be all...

Diagnosing rare illnesses could get easier, thanks to new web-based tools that pull information from a wide variety of sources

After the explosions yesterday at the Boston Marathon, police departments used social media to send out immediate updates. Since the mid-1970s, police scanners have been the only way for civilians to access real-time upd...

Feeling unsafe? Switch on your protective lingerie. In the wake of a highly publicized series of brutal rapes in India, a group of engineering students devised a way to help women deter sexual assault: Make their underwe...

The Thirty Meter Telescope - due to be the world's widest eye on space - has got the go-ahead for construction on the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii

That'll learn those fatcats. Because we'll all be able to see how fat they are. Studio Roosegaarde, led by designer and vowel aficionado Daan Roosegaarde, is one of our favorites; we've previously followed the studio as ...

All the latest stories on newscientist.com: villages of the damned, Boston bombs, Antarctic ice speed record, signs of dark matter, and more

An ice core taken from the west Antarctic Peninsula shows ice is melting 10 times faster each summer than it did 600 years ago

-- Atom Smashers Find Something Not So Charm-ing -- WIMP-like signal indicates first hint of mysterious dark matter -- Scientists see three promising blips in underground dark matter search -- Could Proton Mass Mystery M...

Dumb things will soon be smart--you've heard it repeated ad nauseum. Cyborg-Earth will bristle with uncounted hordes of tiny embedded chips; smart-roads will talk to smart-cars, warning of black ice; smart-buildings will...

What can explain the lung cancer that afflicts the "houses of death" in Turkey? The answer may raise concerns across the world, finds Clare Wilson (full text available to subscribers)

The Welsh measles outbreak is a predictable result of a fall in vaccination rates - something that still needs tackling to ensure the disease is eliminated by 2015

Geneva, 15 April 2013. The inaugural TEDxCERN event will take place on 3 May 2013, under the theme 'Multiplying Dimensions', at the Globe of Science and Innovation with a Live Webcast at the CERN* Main Auditorium and at ...

A record-breaking roller coaster that mimics the thrill of stunt flying. In the competitive world of roller-coaster design, engineers often obsess about smashing records and pushing the limits of human endurance. But rec...

Wearers can push one button for complex movements like right-clicking a mouse and picking up a pen. A new bionic hand is the first to come with app control, allowing users to access complicated motion patterns--like the ...

The detonated bombs could provide a raft of incriminating evidence about who was behind the fatal attack on the Boston marathon on 15 April

Any unexploded devices could provide a raft of incriminating evidence about who was behind the fatal attack on the Boston marathon on 15 April

Analysis of nearly 6 million Twitter users has provided an updated version of the friendship paradox

How does water rise above a full glass without spilling?

Two London exhibitions present extraordinary examples of "outsider" art and science

Street gang members often lead parallel lives online - and that makes cyberspace a great channel for reaching out to them, says criminologist David Pyrooz

Is it Alpha Centauri Bb or Rakhat? A scientific society says a private bid to name exoplanets has no official footing, but the bid's organisers are striking back