Stephanie Pappas

New research finds that solar storms vary in strength over surprisingly short distances, and the current network of sensors may not be enough to properly prepare for future outbursts.

A new DNA study suggests that the lost realm of Punt and the port city of Adulis may have been in the same place, separated by time.

New calculations suggest the sun is a few fractions of a percent smaller than previously estimated, and that could change how we study it.

Mystery blobs in Earth's mantle may be chunks of a Mars-sized space rock that crashed into our planet 4.5 billion years ago, scientists discover.

The Chicxulub impact threw sulfur gas, soot and dust into the air. New research finds that the dust may have been the most devastating.

Scientists have decoded a protein from sea-urchin sperm that's also found in other animals, including humans, raising a new potential avenue for treating male infertility and developing male birth control.

Researchers have used a special crystal to bend the trajectory of light like a black hole would, a phenomenon known as 'pseudogravity.'

A dormant supervolcano in California's Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains lets off the occasional earthquake swarm, but new evidence suggests it's simmering down.

The gold and platinum that came from giant space rocks should have sunk into Earth's core instead of rising to the crust. Scientists have now worked out how this happened — and it may explain some really weird blobs deep in our planet's mantle.

Modern Europeans have a smaller proportion of Neanderthal genes in their genomes than East Asians do. New research suggests the reason lies at the feet of migrating early farmers.

A long-lost tectonic plate dubbed 'Pontus' that was a quarter of the size of the Pacific Ocean was discovered by chance by scientists studying ancient rocks in Borneo.

A new ore, dubbed niobobaotite, was discovered in Inner Mongolia's Bayan Obo deposit and contains the rare earth element niobium — a valuable metal that acts as a superconductor and could revolutionize battery technology.

The discovery of seemingly home-grown carbon dioxide suggests Europa's ice-covered ocean could be habitable.

Placozoans, animals so simple they look like blobby pancakes, have been found to contain cells that may hold the ancestors of modern neurons.

Researchers analyzed RNA from the 130-year-old tissue of a Tasmanian tiger, a carnivorous marsupial that went extinct nine decades ago.

The Argyle formation in Australia, which hosts 90% of the world's pink diamonds, formed when the first supercontinent broke up.

The risk of a rare type of brain hemorrhage may be transmissible, though the absolute risk is very low.

A two-peaked mountain in northeastern China is the site of the world's first confirmed mountaintop crater.

A new study traces the birth of a tectonic plate.

Using a quantum device, researchers have observed, for the first time, a molecular process called conical intersection that is important in reactions such as photosynthesis.

In humans and several other mammals, brain cells are distributed according to a fundamental mathematical pattern, which could help researchers make better models of the brain in the future.

Under some circumstances, people may become more aggressive when they're overheated. But other decision-making doesn't seem to be affected.

An annual survey started in 1975 suggests that more adults under 50 are using hallucinogens.

Researchers have discovered a pattern where diamonds spew from deep beneath Earth's surface in huge, explosive volcanic eruptions.