Science News

Properties, sources and uses of the element argon.

Two high-energy particles glimpsed by the IceCube neutrino detector may be opening the door on a new way of exploring the universe

Skinny ties in space. According to Florida Today, some unspecified writers from the show Mad Men are "working on a potential TV series" to be set in Cocoa Beach, Florida. You might not have heard of Cocoa Beach, a town o...

The company's tagline is, "Putting your best face forward." Facial recognition technology helps Facebook to guess who's in pictures and, in a pilot program, the FBI to match mug shots. Or check out this creepy face mashu...

Brain scans show we feel bad for robots when they're mistreated. Humans feel bad when they see other humans being mistreated, but do we feel the same way about robots? A team of researchers tested that by being first swe...

All the latest stories on newscientist.com: shyness is nice, crowdsourcing manhunts, toxic stress of terrorism via social media, and more

Crowdsourced justice was an abject failure in the wake of the Boston bombings but with the right tools and motives it could be a boon

Ancient crust forced down into Earth's mantle billions of years ago could help pin down when the planet got its tectonic plates

A new map shows how the stuff of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 has spread around the gas giant's atmosphere since it struck Jupiter nearly 20 years ago

Commence giggling We did it, everyone! A space program decades in the making has culminated with this: a penis on the surface of Mars. An intrepid Reddit user spotted the suggestive tracks made by the Opportunity rover, ...

Timid types get a bad rap, but discoveries about animal personalities suggest we should value shy people just as much as extroverts (full text available to subscribers)

In what's being called a medical first, doctors were able to keep a liver functioning outside the body and then transplant it into a patient.

What's going on with PCs? According to data provider IDC, worldwide PC shipments (laptops and desktops) declined -14% in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the first quarter of 2012. It's the worst 12-month decline si...

Blame the skirts. The inventor of the modern hovercraft, Christopher Cockerell, once imagined that his vehicle would cross the Atlantic at 100 miles per hour, an ocean liner coasting on air. While small hovercraft still ...

A device that grabs tiny objects with laser light has been used to manipulate blood cells and clear a blocked capillary

Genetic analysis hints that many Europeans are descended from a Spanish population that spread throughout the continent from about 6000 years ago

Intense discussion of the Boston bombing on social media will have triggered stress that could damage health - even for people the tragedy didn't touch

Intense discussion of the Boston bombing on social media will have triggered stress that could damage health - even for people the tragedy didn't touch

Eleven of 45 racehorses from the world-renowned Godolphin stable in the UK have tested positive for prohibited anabolic steroids (full text available to subscribers)

The Bion-M1 spacecraft is designed to study the biological effects of space travel and potential harm to future astronauts caused by microgravity and radiation

Cosmetic therapies need stricter regulation, says the UK government, including making dermal fillers prescription-only and ensuring mandatory qualifications for therapists

Inserting the right combination of genes into E. coli makes the bacterium produce fuel that would be compatible with most modern engines