Science News

A hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, well in Ohio triggered scores of small earthquakes in March 2014, including one large enough to be felt in nearby towns.

Two years after a car crash left a man in Italy in what doctors call a "minimally conscious state," he suddenly regained the ability to speak and control his movements, according to a new report of his case.

The Japanese Meteorological Agency has released data showing 2014 was the globe's hottest year.

A seemingly endless assortment of fitness trackers, smart appliances and self-driving cars are on display at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, but why do these gadgets matter?

Israel's Declaration of Independence was photographed with a high-tech camera that will recreate the document's original appearance.

Darwin wondered why floppy ears, spots and other traits are common in domesticated animals. Cognitive biologist Tecumseh Fitch thinks he has the answer (full text available to subscribers)

Tiny female flies (genus: Dohrniphora) in Costa Rica kill injured Odontomachus ants (trap-jaw ants), using their "blade-tipped" mouthparts to cut connections between head and body, then use their front legs to pull the a...

Poetry may be more than a distraction for those suffering from terminal illnesses and pain.

Alcohol poisoning deaths add up to more than 2,200 each year in the country, and most occur among middle-age men.

Frozen pipes are a nuisance and a likely reality for many Americans this week as the country grapples with a debilitating cold outbreak, especially in the Northwest and Northeast where temperatures in some areas will dro...

We may not have found life on other planets yet, but it turns out we might find another planet like Earth. There seems to be a "recipe" to create an Earth, suggests a study by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophys...

All the latest on newscientist.com: albatrosses inspire ultra-long-haul drones, Hubble's new Pillars of Creation, books coming in 2015, laser spying and more

The flame tube, first described in 1905 by Heinrich Rubens and Otto Krigar-Menzel as a novel acoustics teaching apparatus, is a mesmerizing thing to behold. It is at once an early analogue to the oscilloscope, illustrati...

NASA has proposed a new citizen science challenge called the 20-20-20 Airship Challenge that calls for high-altitude and long-duration airship designs.

Black widow spiders have rapidly evolved super lethal venom, such that the spiders are now building stronger webs to handle ever-bigger prey.

If you thought 2014 was thrilling, here’s a look at what I’m most excited about for 2015. Here are 11 of the most exciting new technologies moving from deceptive to...

People tend to drink less as they get older, but how much a person's alcohol intake declines over time depends on both their overall health and whether they have a partner, a new report from the U.K. finds.

The Hall effect, discovered in 1879, is observable when a Hall voltage perpendicular to the current is produced across a conductor under a magnetic field. Although the Hall effect was discovered in a sheet of gold leaf b...

A team of engineers has developed a new acousto-optic device that can shape and steer beams of light at speeds never before achieved. The new technology will enable better optical devices to be made, such as holographs t...

California's Napa Valley has a microclimate that produces world-famous wines, but what happens as the climate warms up? Vintners are using advanced technology to conserve water, while scientists are testing varieties tha...

Using your phone or tablet, send a drawing to this little bot created by Disney Research and watch it trace the lines in the sand by dragging a rake behind it

(Phys.org)--Working at temperatures matching the interior of the sun, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories' Z machine have been able to determine experimentally, for the first time in history, iron's role in inhib...