Science News

Unless you're one of the Stark kids from "Game of Thrones," a wolf probably isn't a great choice for a pet. But tens of thousands of years ago, wolves started down the path of domestication and ended up becoming "man's b...

Quantum entanglement, a perplexing phenomenon of quantum mechanics that Albert Einstein once referred to as "spooky action at a distance," could be even spookier than Einstein perceived.

Rowdy fans stomping and roaring when the Seattle Seahawks scored a touchdown last night (Dec. 2) shook the football stadium so hard that a nearby seismic monitor registered an "earthquake."

A seemingly desolate cave system in southern Arizona actually plays host to a surprisingly diverse array of microbes that survive underground despite the extreme dearth of light and nutrients, according to a new study.

In a public outreach effort, scientists at Columbia University have banded together to create a 2014 Climate Model wall calendar, in which they dress up and smile for the camera and help show the public that they are nor...

In an effort to humanize climate scientists and engage the public with climate change research, Columbia scientists have banded together to model in the first ever Climate Model wall calendar.

The mating roar of a male harbor seal is supposed to attract a partner, not a predator. Unfortunately for the seals, scientists have found evidence that marine-mammal-eating killer whales eavesdrop on their prey. The res...

The Merriam-Webster dictionary noted an increased interest in the word "science" this year and crowned the word as its 2013 Word of the Year.

It's on many women's (and men's) holiday wish lists: a male birth control pill that can be flipped on and off like a light switch when needed. According to researchers in Australia and Britain, scientists are one step cl...

Listen up nickel-titanium and all you other shape-memory alloys, there's a new kid on the block that just claimed the championship for elasticity and is primed to take over the shape memory apps market at the nanoscale. ...

A UN report on the HIV epidemic says countries that persecute those most at risk are obstructing progress against the disease by silencing affected people     

Researcher Nina Kraus has found a positive impact on long-term brain functions in people with as few as four years of musical training.

Last month we blogged about how regenerative braking might be possible for electric bicycles. Using a crude estimation, we estimated that regenerative braking alone would have a difficult time re-charging the e-bike's ba...

Large-scale ivory seizures have reached record highs this year, raising questions over trafficking and enforcement     

Borrowing ideas from weather forecasting, researchers have developed a system to predict, weeks in advance, when a city will see the peak of its seasonal flu outbreak.

All the latest on newscientist.com: things that go bump in the night, how men and women have different brain wiring, books of the year, chimp rights and more     

Up until now, most of the popular 3D printing hype has swirled around plastic 3D printers, which have been used to make everything from clothing to art. Now, scientists have built a new open-source 3D metal printer that ...

A 35-year old woman in Hong Kong is currently in critical condition, a sign that the virus is now spreading across China     

Despite the bad press, wind turbines are less of a threat to birds than traditional energy production and distribution.

Some of the most wanted stuff in the universe may have shown its face in a simple tabletop experiment nearly a decade ago - only no one noticed at the time     

New research reveals the motivations behind taking home a stranger or calling up an acquaintance for a night of no-strings attached sex. Defining casual relationships such as booty call allows psychologists to study them...

Through a process known as thermionic conversion, heat energy -- such as light from the sun or heat from burned fossil fuels -- can be converted into electricity with very high efficiency. Because of its promise, researc...