Science News

Glass fibres can do more than transport data. A special type of glass fibre can also be used as a high-precision multi-purpose sensor, as researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) in Erlangen...

Have you ever wondered why the human brain evolved the way it did?

If watching giant robots fight to the death sounds like your idea of a good time, then you're in luck.

Nearly 30 observations were lost due to a glitch during a system update on July 4th, 2015. NASA principal investigator Alan Stern lists the data that will not be retrieved from July 4th until July 7th.

It's well known that women live longer than men, but this wasn't always the case: A new study finds that differences between men and women's life expectancies began to emerge in the late 1800s.

An occasional dolphin kill won't be enough to sustain polar bears as global climate continues to warm.

Men's testosterone levels may be linked with their risk of depression, a new study finds.

An optical technology already widely used in ophthalmology and other medical fields holds potential to reveal how blood flows in the brain during stroke, providing information that could someday guide new treatments and ...

Mysterious cases of paralysis in U.S. children over the last year have researchers searching for the cause of the illness. Now, a new study suggests that a new strain of a poliolike virus may be responsible for some of t...

With immense respect to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, I'd like to suggest an alternative to the giving pledge...an "impact pledge." Specifically, a pledge where philanthropists actually pledge to solve...

Watch zooplankton waft tiny, fluorescent beads of plastic towards them, before swallowing the stuff – demonstrating the dangers of marine litter

Americans are a diverse, wacky group of people, and here are some numbers to prove it. From the amount of trash we churn out to our very odd beliefs in conspiracy theories and religion, here's a look at some startling fa...

A new type of sensor, that is much faster than competing technologies used to detect and identify hidden objects, has been developed by scientists at the University of Warwick.

Playing the classic video game a day after witnessing a traumatic event could reduce the risk of developing PTSD

Imagine a fleet of driverless taxis roaming your city, ready to pick you up and take you to your destination at a moment's notice. While this may seem fantastical, it may be only a matter of time before it becomes realit...

As the cash dries up in Greece, how can economic paralysis be averted? Innovative parallel currencies offer one way to tackle the crisis, says Jem Bendell (full text available to subscribers)

Modern magnetic memories, such as hard drives installed in almost every computer, can store a very large amount of information thanks to very tiny, nanoscale magnetic sensors used for memory readout. The operation of the...

It is impossible to obtain all information about a large quantum system consisting of hundreds or thousands of particles. A new technique allows to describe such systems in terms of 'continuous matrix product states.' Wi...

Collision physics can be like a game of billiards. Yet in the microscopic world, the outcome of the game is hard to predict. Fire a particle at a group of other particles, and they may scatter, combine or break apart, ac...

Stopping a protein that builds up with age has been shown to aid memory and help mouse brains remain young. If true in humans, a drug could halt memory loss

The prototype of the memcomputer, which works by mimicking the human brain, could one day lead to computers that solve notoriously difficult math problems and could even help to break codes.

A new study discovers how the sudden excitation of lattice vibrations in a crystal can trigger a change of the magnetic properties of an atomically-thin layer that lies on its surface.