Scientists are using funhouse images of faraway galaxies to learn how dark matter shaped the cosmos we see today.
If a pulsing star exists near the center of our Milky Way galaxy, where a giant black hole is thought to lurk, it could shed light on the workings of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, scientists say. The flashes of light from such a star, called a pulsar, could be used to determine how…
Chimps and toddlers rely on the “wisdom of the crowd” to sway their decision-making processes, new research published in the journal Current Biology indicates. Orangutans don’t, which could be because they live solitary lives. The researchers were interested in finding out more about social learning — how one animal picks up behaviors from others rather…
U.S. eighth graders did slightly better last year on a national science test than did their counterparts in 2009. But what that result says about the state of science in U.S. schools is open to debate. A 2-point rise to 152 (on a scale from 0 to 300) is part of what Jack Buckley, head…
The first drill sample ever collected on Mars will come from a rockbed shot through with unexpected veins of what appears to be the mineral gypsum. Delighted members of the Curiosity science team announced that the rover was now in a virtual “candy store” of scientific targets—the lowest point of Gale crater, called Yellowknife Bay,…
The dawn of the 21st century has been called the decade of the drone. Unmanned aerial vehicles, remotely operated by pilots in the United States, rain Hellfire missiles on suspected insurgents in South Asia and the Middle East. Now a small group of scholars is grappling with what some believe could be the next generation…
Between the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens is a broad creek tainted by 150 years of pollution. It has received toxins from the petrochemical plants, fertilizer factories and other industries that once flourished along its banks. Oil seeps into it from a 50-acre underground spill nearby. And when heavy rains flood the…