Science News

Putting a drone in a ball could add an antigravity component to typical ball games, much like the winged snitch in the Harry Potter books     

(Phys.org) --University of Oregon physicists using a supercomputer and mathematically rich formulas have captured fundamental insights about what happens when objects moving freely jam to a standstill.

(Phys.org) --Physicists are one step closer to developing the world's first room-temperature superconductor thanks to a new theory from the University of Waterloo, Harvard and Perimeter Institute.

The U.S. military is investing in manned and unmanned aircraft that can take off, hover and land vertically. These so-called vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicles could one day transport troops, weapons or cargo t...

Never understood the International Date Line? This informative animation shows how the IDL works.

Oil from the Exxon Valdez spill lingers, as do disputes about its current impact on wildlife. John Wiens asks what a quarter century of research can tell us     

The White House launched a new effort Wednesday to make climate data more accessible to the public.

The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory's (PPPL) new experiment appears to be operated by a ghost: It will turn on by itself and emit a purplish glow without any researchers flipping a switch. In fact, physicists at the ...

As the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 continues, here are some facts about the passengers, crew, aircraft and airline.

We can't see most of the universe with the naked eye, but we've come up with some incredible inventions to bring things into view (full text available to subscribers)     

DARPA, the branch of the U.S. Department of Defense tasked with developing new technologies for the military, is looking to make "radical improvements" to futuristic, helicopter-type vehicles that are designed to take of...

Fish oil is touted so often that it's beginning to sound like a cure-all. It isn't.

Everyone knows cuckoos are the freeloaders of the animal kingdom, laying their eggs in other birds' nests. But such slackers may not be total parasites.

Most of the United States will suffer colder than average temperatures this spring, and drought will continue in the West.

The genome of the sea anemone suggests this ancient creature shares many traits with both plants and animals.

The worldwide demand for solar and wind power continues to skyrocket. Since 2009, global solar photovoltaic installations have increased about 40 percent a year on average, and the installed capacity of wind turbines has...

The shifting ice field of the Arctic's biggest glacier looks like a shimmering soap bubble in a radar image that captures even the slightest movement     

UVA+B SunFriend claims to make sunbathing safe by monitoring UV exposure, allowing users to get vitamin D from catching rays without the dangerous burn     

Results from ice age sediments deal a blow to geoengineering schemes, which seek to slow global warming with iron fertilization.

An exquisitely preserved, 180-million-year-old fossil fern has been unearthed in Sweden, and an analysis of its subcellular parts reveal not much has changed for the plant since then.

An exquisitely preserved, 180-million-year-old fossil fern has been unearthed in Sweden, and an analysis of its subcellular parts reveal not much has changed for the plant since then.

From the smell of fresh coffee to the odor of burning rubber to the fresh smell after rain, the human nose can distinguish many more odors than once thought, a new study suggests.