Astronomy

Farming arose on multiple continents among populations with radically different cultures and environments and with no means of communicating with each other – how did it crop up independently at about the same time?

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander has beamed back video of its ongoing lunar science operations, including drilling into the surface of the moon.

Return to the glory days of 'Star Trek' and 'The Outer Limits' in our special voyage down small screen's memory lane.

A new report finds that butterfly populations in the continental U.S. declined by one fifth between 2000 and 2020—but it’s not too late

Linguists, psychologists and experts in cultural evolution are discovering why we tell stories, how ancient the oldest ones are and why some tales run and run

Linguists, psychologists and experts in cultural evolution are discovering why we tell stories, how ancient the oldest ones are and why some tales run and run

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences should denounce the antiscientific policies of the Trump administration

A patch of old oak trees in the UK is helping scientists to predict how the world’s forests will respond to higher levels of carbon dioxide, a crucial question for our future climate

A patch of old oak trees in the UK is helping scientists to predict how the world’s forests will respond to higher levels of carbon dioxide, a crucial question for our future climate

Natural cycles in Earth's rotational axis and its orbit around the sun drive climatic changes, and now researchers have matched up specific points in those cycles to the timing of ice ages.

Looking back in time can seem like a sci-fi fantasy. But the nature of the Universe allows us to do it if we have the right telescope. The JWST is the right telescope, and as part of its observations, it frequently examines ancient galaxies whose light is only reaching us now. One of those ancient galaxies is both bright and enriched with metals, both signs of maturity.

COVID’s emotional and educational strain on children still lingers, but educators and mental health specialists say they are far from a “lost generation”

A highly pathogenic strain of bird flu is spreading south along the Antarctic Peninsula and could devastate populations of penguins and other seabirds

A highly pathogenic strain of bird flu is spreading south along the Antarctic Peninsula and could devastate populations of penguins and other seabirds

Data sent to Earth by its MAPP moon rover on Intuitive Machines' ill-fated IM-2 mission will help Colorado company Lunar Outpost prepare for future lunar voyages.

Help us uncover the secrets of the Sun! Our Solar Orbiter spacecraft has been watching the Sun since February 2020. With five years’ worth of data waiting to be explored, it’s time to dig in. The new ‘Solar Radio Burst Tracker’ Zooniverse project is ready for you.

In what might be a first in spaceflight history, the next crew to launch to the International Space Station has adopted a mission patch that began with ideas put forth by an AI.

The U.S. Space Force's X-37B spaceplane (which looks remarkably like a Space Shuttle that someone forgot to put the windows in!) completed its seventh mission this week, touching down at Vandenberg Space Force Base after 434 days in orbit. Although the mission is classified, Space Force officials, said that it followed a highly elliptical orbital path while conducting various tests and experiments. They also described the mission as operating "across orbital regimes,” whatever that means…is classified!

Animal emotions—including joy—may be key markers of conscious beings

Despite headlines, there were fewer food recalls in 2024 than in 2023, but more people died from food poisoning linked to outbreaks