Science News

NASA's record-breaking Parker Solar Probe will smash its own personal bests for proximity to the sun and fastest speed by a human-made object when it whizzes past our star on Christmas Eve (Dec. 24). It is unlikely to get significantly closer to the sun before the end of its mission.

An open-source database made by MIT engineers houses over 8,000 aerodynamic car designs and could train future AI models to design EVs in the future.

As the Atlantic grew wider, the ancestral population of all of today's oaks may have been straddling the continents of the Northern Hemisphere. If so, the ancestor of the oaks we know today was a widespread population that was cleaved in half as North America inched westward.

There's a cosmic 'Christmas Wreath' hanging in the Small Magellanic Cloud, the James Webb and Chandra telescopes revealed in a sparkly new image.

In 1974, Stephen Hawking proposed that black holes could evaporate. But do we understand how this might happen?

The James Webb Space Telescope has confirmed 20-year-old Hubble observations that could finally explain how ancient stars can host massive planets.

Known for its uncanny resemblance to the TV character Shaun the Sheep, this adorable sea slug munches on algae to steal its ability to photosynthesize and become solar-powered.

Scientists say a phenomenon called "skin conductance," which changes when you sweat, is a surprisingly accurate method for detecting emotions — with future robots that detect this able to tell your emotions.

Florida's non-native green iguanas become paralyzed and drop from trees when temperatures dip. Climate change could bring this problem to new areas.

The world we live in might be unrecognizable if Alexander the Great had been defeated by the Persians.

Satellite imagery from NASA and the European Space Agency reveal 13 years of melt on the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Dec. 20, 2024: Our weekly roundup of the latest science in the news, as well as a few fascinating articles to keep you entertained over the weekend.

Bacteria that are mirror images of existing ones could evade our immune systems, causing serious illness.

Astronomers have discovered a pair of young stars near the supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy. Studying them can offer a rare glimpse into how stars can endure — at least briefly — the immense gravity exerted by such cosmic behemoths.

Paleogenomics has finally solved a question that has puzzled researchers for decades: Where did syphilis come from?

An initially "unknown" illness affecting hundreds in the Democratic Republic of the Congo may be attributable to malaria, malnutrition and a viral infection. But investigations are ongoing.

Researchers believe dark rocks at the site of a future Mars rover landing mission may be left over from ancient volcanic eruptions, and may be protecting signs of life — if there ever was life on Mars.

A silver amulet found next to a skeleton in a 1,800-year-old grave in Germany speaks to the importance — and the risk — of being Christian in Roman times.

Archaeologists have found 188 medieval reliquaries during excavations at a square in Berlin. Some of them still contain human bones of people considered to be saints or holy.

Officials say they've eradicated northern giant hornets, nicknamed "murder hornets," after years of tracking the invasive giant wasps in Washington state.