Science News

The Russian Space Agency Roscosmos announced on Friday that it would start using #cosmoselfie to tag selfies taken by astronauts. One problem: The popular women's lifestyle magazine Cosmopolitan already uses #cosmoselfie...

A new planet that scientists are calling a close "cousin" of Earth was discovered nearly 500 light years away in the constellation Cygnus, NASA scientists announced Thursday. Called Kepler-186f, the exoplanet - a term gi...

Some of the world's greatest physicists couldn't tell you why our leading theory of everything is labelled "M". Amanda Gefter hit the road to solve the mystery (full text available to subscribers)

Astrophysicists are getting to the depth of dark matter.

For decades, scientists have used techniques like X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMR) to gain invaluable insight into the atomic structure of molecules, but such efforts have long been hamp...

For years, companies have been adding whiteners to laundry detergent, paints, plastics, paper and fabrics to make whites look "whiter than white," but now, with a switch away from incandescent and fluorescent lighting, d...

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station early Easter morning. NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and ISS Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata, from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, gr...

We don't fully understand how neural networks form--that is, how neurons evolve from a few disconnected individual cells into the highly organized and closely related regions of the brain that control the body and mind. ...

A method for making large amounts of the wonder material graphene is so simple that it can be done with kitchen appliances and Fairy Liquid

A planet-hunting telescope has observed long-predicted gravitational lensing of a star in a binary system by its companion --

From really old dirt to an ancient wrestling contract, these are the most interesting stories in Science this week.

(Columbia University Medical Center) A team of researchers from Columbia University Medical Center, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Brandeis University has devised a wholly new approach to the treatment of Alzheimer's...

(University of Cambridge) Stem cells -- the body's master cells -- demonstrate a bizarre property never before seen at a cellular level, according to a study published today from scientists at the University of Cambridge...

(University of Nebraska-Lincoln) Biofuels made from corn stover -- stalks, leaves and cobs that remain after harvest -- appear to emit more carbon dioxide over their life cycle than federal standards allow, according to ...

Not only are sea sponges thought to have played a key role in the evolution of life on Earth, they're also cold-hearted killing machines. Well, at least some of them are. Researchers have discovered four new species of c...