Science News

Sir Isaac Newton probably wasn't thinking about how animals urinate when he was developing his laws of gravity. But they are connected -- by the urethra, to be specific.

Tropical storm Douglas, which formed in the eastern Pacific off the Mexican coast, is moving northwest with maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour, or mph, and does not pose a direct threat to land, the National Hu...

Are probiotics safe to take, and do they have side effects? Here are eight expert tips about probiotics.

An elephant's bladder can hold nearly 5 gallons (18 liters) of fluid, and yet, it can pee just as quickly as a cat. A new study reveals that most mammals larger than rats urinate for about the same amount of time: 21 sec...

The light-warping structures known as metamaterials have a new trick in their ever-expanding repertoire. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have built a silver, glass and chromium na...

Today, doctors who really want to see if a wound is healing have to do a biopsy or some other invasive technique that, besides injuring an already injured patient, can really only offer information about a small area. Bu...

Catching a nearby supernova would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience that could give scientists a glimpse into physics they could never recreate on Earth. Thousands of years ago, when a stargazer noticed a bright, new sp...

A new Gallup poll shows that the number of Americans who reported they were satisfied with their freedom has dropped 12 points, from 91 percent in 2006 to 79 percent in 2013.

Our mobile devices may make getting good sleep particularly challenging. Here are some sleep tips from experts.

The following guest post is by Roy Rinberg, a graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va. and an incoming freshman at New York University. He is... --

Copperhead on a Tigershark Drone Sandia National Laboratories Improvised explosive devices are the scourge of the modern battlefield, assembled from simple components and placed along frequently patrolled roads to ambush...

The Hanhowuz Reservoir of Turkmenistan stands out as a shock of turquoise in the desert, with irrigated agricultural fields making a checkerboard around it. But this water diversion project and others like it have caused...

The rate of prescriptions that doctors write for painkillers varies widely by state, with states in the South having some of the highest rates, according to a new report

The first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season has finally formed, and it's likely to dampen Fourth of July festivities for some East Coast residents this weekend.

Some salon manicures require you to dry your freshly painted nails under a UV light. But why only certain types of manicures and why UV? Why don't you always dry your nails with a UV light? And when you do paint your nai...

NASA's carbon dioxide-tracking satellite will have to wait another day to shoot into space. The U.S. space agency called off the launch of the Delta 2 rocket that was carrying the satellite less than a minute before lift...

An inflatable landing system has been successfully tested over the Pacific, and could one day bring humans safely down to the Red Planet's surface

Writing Robot Mirko Tobias Schaefer/Gastev on Flickr, CC BY 2.0 The venerated AP now plans to generate and sell thousands of automated business articles a year. The robot-written stories will bring up the AP's story coun...

All the latest on newscientist.com: brewing milk like beer, meteorite may have sparked life, journey of hope for Earth, contraception vs religion and more

New research suggests Chilean devil rays warm themselves in the sun at the surface then dive down to extreme depths in search of food.

The technology involved in creating artificial limbs has come a long way in the last few decades. We have now witnessed a paralyzed man kick a soccer ball at the opening ceremonies of the World Cup, and a double-amputee ...

Tropical storms like hurricanes and typhoons are reaching their peak intensity further and further from the equator.