Science News

People who report a strong compulsion to use Facebook have brain abnormalities similar to those of people addicted to other substances.

The extinctions we cause will kill us too, says the sociobiology pioneer - the best thing would be to eliminate religions, though not human spiritual yearning (full text available to subscribers)

Two drug candidates can target biological pathways involved in the destruction of brain cells in Parkinson's disease, scientists have reported. The studies suggest that it is possible to design highly effective and highl...

It's usually only possible to see the spot where a laser lands rather than its path, but now an ultrafast camera has caught those photons mid-flight

The oldest rocky planets yet are 11.2 billion years old, just a little younger than the universe - meaning the galaxy made an early start on planet building

People over age 65 who frequently take over-the-counter sleep aids and certain other commonly used drugs may be increasing their risk of dementia, new findings show.

What do you call a robot that can drive a car, break down walls and scale buildings? Hint: It's not "the Terminator."

New battery technology from the University of Michigan should be able to prevent the kind of fires that grounded Boeing 787 Dreamliners in 2013.

From 16th-century colonisers of the Caribbean to Katrina's victims, Stuart Schwarz's Sea of Storms explores the long geopolitical shadow of tropical hurricanes

A "faster-than-light" experiment could be a real-world tool for studying the cosmos, according to research presented this month at the 225th American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle.

Trade-offs between optimising current and future reproduction are also common.

All the latest on newscientist.com: normal foot myth, eco-utopias vs eco-activism, planets almost as old as the universe and more

In a marathon, everyone starts at roughly the same place at roughly the same time. But the faster runners will gradually increase their lead, and in the end, the distribution of runners on the street will be very broad. ...

Before Pilkingtons invented plate glass in the mid-19th century, flat panes could not be made. Old windows are uneven.

The one person who really looks bad in the whole DeflateGate scandal is Bill Nye.  No matter how you feel about Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, and the Patriots, one good thing that has come out of the DeflateGate scandal ha...

More and more people are getting to know drones, and not just the military kind. Drones were one of the hottest gifts over the holidays because they're not only getting...

Researchers have discovered the oldest known snake fossils, according to a new study.

An ancient human fossil discovered from the seafloor near Taiwan reveals that a primitive group of humans, potentially an unknown species, once lived in Asia, researchers say.

Obesity rates have increased among most groups in the United States in recent years, but the biggest rise has been among older adults, according to a new poll.

Norway's Austfonna ice cap is shrinking faster than 20 years ago, especially in the region where the ice meets the sea.

Volunteer-run services are plugging holes left by cutbacks in Greece and may have helped focus support for the radical Syriza party

(Phys.org)--Like Einstein, the philosopher Karl Popper was a realist who was deeply bothered by some of the odd implications of quantum mechanics. Both Popper and Einstein disliked the idea in Heisenberg's uncertainty pr...