Science News

Some researchers think mathematical laws can explain how societies stop working. We should find out if they're right     

Chemical clues hint that the strange stone found in the Egyptian desert comes from a comet that exploded near Earth 28 million years ago     

Crystal healing is an alternative medicine technique that employs crystals and other stones as conduits for natural healing energy.

Engage with Simran Sethi and QUEST on social media in this Conversation about food waste. #QUESTfood

Stanford University students design and race a single passenger solar car 1, 800 miles across the Australian continent in an international competition that pushes the boundaries of solar-powered technology.

Scott Carpenter Malcolm Scott Carpenter, who used his middle name as his first, was the second American to orbit the Earth, way back in 1962, on the Mercury mission. (John Glenn was the first.) Carpenter died today in De...

LSO Play LSO The London Symphony Orchestra has just created a mind-blowingly cool interactive site that lets you channel-surf through different views of the performance. HD cameras followed the orchestra as they played a...

All About the Benjamins newmoney.gov New ATMs are coming that will let customers withdraw cash with a smartphone app, no debit card needed. Withdrawing cash with a phone takes less than nine seconds, compared to 30 or 40...

After the first farmers colonised Europe, local hunter-gatherers hung around for two millennia, living alongside their agricultural competitors     

You know what's kind of a robot, if your definition of robot is loose and you squint when you're looking at it? The five-dollar clearance-sale coffee machine in my kitchen. You know what is definitely a robot, but also m...

Chimps and seals can learn to understand human arm gestures, but only with training. For African elephants, there is no training required     

Sexy Avatars Courtesy Jeremy Bailenson When we don a virtual reality avatar, our real-life behavior can change, too. Like, for example, when people embody a tall avatar, they have a tendency to act more confidently. It's...

Transparent plastic arm shows how 3D printers can create strong structure, mobile joints and delicate sensors in one process     

Key concepts [More] --

The wrong sort of injection ON OCTOBER 8th researchers announced progress in developing a vaccine against malaria. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a British pharmaceutical firm, said it would seek regulatory approval next year fo...

WILL he or won't he? That was the question on the mind of anyone with a passing interest in the topic as representatives of Sweden's Royal Academy of Science prepared to announce the winner of this year's Nobel physics p...

THE American government views China's space programme with suspicion. Chinese taikonauts are, for instance, banned from the International Space Station, which despite its name is largely an American venture. Most recentl...

Homing missiles BIOFILMS are a problem in medicine. When bacteria gang up to form the continuous sheets that bear this name they are far harder to kill with antibiotics than when they just float around as individual cell...

It's heretical, but it might just be true: organisms may be able to direct the evolutionary path their descendants take. Bob Holmes thinks the unthinkable (full text available to subscribers)     

A team of innovative students at UNC Charlotte develop a game-changing material poised to improve the way we build our cities and our homes.

(Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) Egoism and narcissism appear to be on the rise in our society, while empathy is on the decline. And yet, the ability to put ourselves in other people's shoes is extremely important for our coexi...

(Springer) This year's Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics will be awarded to Sir John Pendry, one of the world's leading condensed matter theorists. His revolutionary work on metamaterials has opened the doors to ...