Science News

Assembling the puzzles of quantum materials is, in some ways, like dipping a wire hanger into a vat of soapy water, says CIFAR (Canadian Institute for Advanced Research) Fellow Joseph Thywissen (University of Toronto).

Using a material found in Silly Putty and surgical tubing, a group of researchers at the University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering have developed a new way to make lithium-ion batteries that will ...

SeaPerch Robot Kelsey D. Atherton This week in Orlando, Florida, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) held a gathering of drone industry people, from manufacturers of parts to autopilot soft...

An Elk Hunting Ranch In Chama, New Mexico Jeff Vanuga, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Here's a roundup of the week's top drone news, designed to capture the military, commercial, non-profit, and recreationa...

A correlation suggests an answer to the longstanding question of what triggers bolts --

California's wildfires have spawned a number of dramatic fire whirls, also known as fire devils, fire tornadoes or "firenadoes." What is a fire tornado, and how dangerous are they?

Unless a new patron emerges, the U.S. Government's High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program is threatened with closure next month  --

Pathogen zombies, evil magic zombies and space zombies are just a few of the threats in a newly uncovered Pentagon plan for dealing with the zombie apocalypse. U.S. citizens can relax, though: The plan was a training exe...

Commercially hunted for generations, the last remaining North Atlantic right whales may now face further danger from seismic surveys.

Multi-jointed mind-controlled prosthetic arm; prosthetic gets to girl who needs it; steer a wheelchair with your eyes.

The government agency that funds research into complementary and alternative medicine is looking to change its name.

Ancient Chinese tea bowls might hold the recipe for a rare form of iron oxide that scientists have had a hard time making in the lab. Pure epsilon-phase iron oxide was unexpectedly discovered in the glaze of silvery Jian...

Fitness trackers are becoming increasingly popular, but do these wearable devices actually do what they claim? Researchers in Iowa put 7 commercial fitness trackers to the test.

It might be too late this time, but engineers around the world are working to prepare fleets of robots to help with the next mining disaster

Rice University physicist Wei Li is searching for the smallest and hottest drop of soup in the universe, and thanks to a coveted Early Career Award from the Department of Energy (DOE), he'll have a chance to look for it ...

Maritime experts believe they have found the wreck site of the Planter, a Civil war-era steamer that was once commandeered by slaves escaping Charleston Harbor. The ship was destroyed by a storm in 1876.

"We are a coastal country," says National Climate Assessment's Coasts chapter's Susanne C. Moser, with 94,000 miles of coastline and more than $1 trillion in coastal infrastructure and all are increasingly vulnerable.

Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is threatened by oil prospectors. Here are some of the unique wonders within its borders

The Civil War-era ship the Planter sank in 1876. The ship's history includes being piloted out of Charleston Harbor by a crew of enslaved African-Americans.

As smartphones get smarter and computers compute faster, researchers actively search for ways to speed up the processing of information. Now, scientists at Princeton University have made a step forward in developing a ne...

There are many mysteries about the enigmatic ringed gas giant, but the curious mechanism behind Saturn's 'spokes' is one of the more intriguing puzzles.

Whenever humans finally touch down on Mars, they'll be following in the footsteps of many brave robotic pioneers. Unmanned missions to the Red Planet have greatly increased scientists' and engineers' ability to eventuall...