Science News

Positing that alternative universes exist is just disguising our lack of knowledge of the cosmos. It's time to move on, says physicist Lee Smolin (full text available to subscribers)

Using phase-contrast X-ray tomography could help researchers finally reveal the secrets hidden in the rolled scrolls of Herculaneum.

Signal amplification is ubiquitous to all electronic and optoelectronic systems for communications, imaging and computing - its characteristics directly impact device performance.

Women and people with high incomes are particularly likely to use calorie information at restaurants.

Enjoy your morning cup of joe without guilt: A new study finds that drinking four or more cups of coffee daily is linked with a lower risk of malignant melanoma, the deadliest skin cancer.

It's technology so advanced that the machine capable of using it doesn't yet exist.

That smartphone you carry around in your pocket all day is a pretty versatile lab assistant. It is packed with internal sensors that measure everything from acceleration to sound volume to magnetic field strength. But I'...

Make a cloud chamber and watch fundamental particles zip through your living room! The scale of the detectors at the Large Hadron Collider is almost incomprehensible: They weigh thousands of tons, contain millions of det...

Exactly how opioid drugs should best be used to treat patients who are in pain remains unclear. In fact, the scientific evidence on the topic is so scarce that doctors have little choice but to rely on their own clinical...

The Lone Star state could soon be the new testing ground for the most futuristic transportation system in the world.

Signal amplification is ubiquitous to all electronic and optoelectronic systems for communications, imaging and computing -- its characteristics directly impact device performance.

All the lastest on newscientist.com: why your brain loves pointless rituals, bitcoin vs big data, wash like an Egyptian, Davos, Glass, snail drugs and more

Scientists at the University of Rochester have used lasers to transform metals into extremely water repellent, or super-hydrophobic, materials without the need for temporary coatings.

Volunteers around the world are helping researchers hunt for earth-dwelling bacteria that could yield a much-need antibiotic breakthrough

Hundreds of charred, rolled papyrus scrolls that were buried after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79 could be virtually unrolled thanks to a new x-ray method of reading them.

Two new maps available for free download considerably improve estimates of land dedicated to agriculture, and provide the first global overview of field sizes.

Yesterday marked the end of Google's Glass Explorer Program. First released with much fanfare in 2013, Google marketed Glass to developers and early adopters. For $1,500, they would get the device...

Scientists at the University of Rochester have used lasers to transform metals into extremely water repellent, or super-hydrophobic, materials without the need for temporary coatings.

Ancient cosmetic recipes often claimed the endorsement of celebrities such as Cleopatra. But could they really have made her complexion so famously milky? (full text available to subscribers)

Scientists at the Mechanobiology Institute (MBI) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have discovered the molecular mechanisms responsible for the formation of the adherens junction at the nanoscale level. This ...

A new semiconductor laser developed at Yale has the potential to significantly improve the imaging quality of the next generation of high-tech microscopes, laser projectors, photolithography, holography, and biomedical i...

Can a penalty kick simultaneously score a goal and miss? For very small objects, at least, this is possible: according to the predictions of quantum mechanics, microscopic objects can take different paths at the same tim...