Science News

A new study links exposure to phthalates during pregnancy and an increased risk of motor skill deficits in 11 year old children.

More often than not, we fall into the trap of trying to predict and anticipate the future, forgetting that the future is up to us to envision and create. In the words of Buckminster Fuller, "We are called to be architect...

JILA researchers have made a long-lived, record-cold gas of molecules that follow the wave patterns of quantum mechanics instead of the strictly particle nature of ordinary classical physics. The creation of this gas boo...

Older adults who exercise by using electric bicycles experience comparable cognitive and mental health benefits to those who use a standard, pedal powered bike.

Many people assume an asteroid triggered the mass extinction that killed the dinosaurs, but geologists say massive volcanic eruptions occurred at the same time

In the global quest to develop practical computing and communications devices based on the principles of quantum physics, one potentially useful component has proved elusive: a source of individual particles of light wit...

A team of Cambridge researchers have found a way to control the sea of nuclei in semiconductor quantum dots so they can operate as a quantum memory device.

Cymatics. If you know the word, it conjures images of hypnotic geometries, shapes of sand that shift and rearrange into ever-more-elaborate configurations, while a humming sound in the background rises in pitch to become...

Salk researchers have discovered a possible neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory compound in the Californian shrub, Yerba santa, that may help in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

Billions of them are passing through every centimeter of your body right this instant, but you can't feel them. What are these mysterious "little neutral ones?"

A woman has died and more than two dozen others are ill after eating at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Spain.

The worlds of engineering and baseball have collided. Researchers at Utah State University are breaking down the physics of a new baseball pitch that's been getting a lot of attention.

Pay no attention to those buckets of radioactive uranium in the Grand Canyon museum, they're probably nothing to worry about, experts say.

The wispy outermost layer of Earth's atmosphere extend much deeper into space than scientists realized -- deep enough that the moon orbits through it.

THAT SPECIES might spread overseas by hitching lifts on floating vegetation is an idea going back to Charles Darwin. It is a plausible thought, but hard to test. A test of sorts has, however, been made possible by the ts...

PLANTS NEED nitrogen to make proteins and DNA. But though this element is abundant in the air, they have failed to evolve the biochemical apparatus needed to break up nitrogen molecules and combine the resulting atoms wi...

SENDING PEOPLE to Mars is a daunting prospect. It would take astronauts at least nine months to get there, they might spend a year on the planet itself, and they would then spend another nine months on the journey home. ...

LIVING THINGS are star stuff. Other than hydrogen, which comes from the Big Bang, which marked the birth of the universe, the familiar elements of which flesh is composed--carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and so on--were created...

Nuclei in their lowest energy states (ground state) are composed of neutrons and protons. Two protons and two neutrons in a nucleus can cluster together to form alpha particles. When the nucleus gets nearly enough energy...

When will the end come for the oceans?

A team of researchers from Universite de Lyon and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique has developed a qualitative model to describe microscopic "jumps" that happen when adhesive tape is unwound from a roll. In t...

Oscillating flow and light pulses can be used to create reconfigurable architecture in liquid crystals. Materials scientists can carefully engineer concerted microfluidic flows and localized optothermal fields to achieve...