Feature

Astronomy

Celebrating 25 years of the Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope has served for more than two decades as the sharpest eyes ever to peer into the universe.

Environment

Five years on, Deepwater Horizon oil spill’s impact lingers

Five years after the Gulf of Mexico’s largest disaster, researchers are still studying its ecological impact and struggling to learn the fate of most of the spilled oil.

Archaeology

Telling stories from stone tools

Existing stone tool categories may hide more than they reveal. New methods for analyzing stone artifacts aim to better reconstruct how hominids interacted and moved across Africa, Asia and Europe.

Astronomy

Solo planets may be surprisingly common

Rogue planets may form as stars do, but on a smaller scale, or they may go forced out of orbit during planetary ping-pong. Researchers are scanning the skies for them.

Neuroscience

Mapping aggression circuits in the brain

Using optogenetics and other techniques, scientists are tracing connections to and from the brain’s aggression command center.

Particle Physics

Sam Ting tries to expose dark matter’s mysteries

Particle physicist Sam Ting is applying a meticulous approach to analyzing positrons in space, testing whether they can reveal clues about dark matter.

Health & Medicine

For athletes, antioxidant pills may not help performance

Supplements of vitamins C, E and other antioxidants may blunt the positive effects of exercise training.

Health & Medicine

Six ways to beat chronic stress

Counseling, mindfulness training and purposeful social contact may counteract the effects of chronic stress.

Health & Medicine

Chronic stress can wreak havoc on the body

Scientists are shedding light on all the ways that chronic stress can boost inflammation and lead to serious health problems.

Psychology

Adults with autism are left to navigate a jarring world

Researchers are beginning to study ways to help adults with autism navigate independently, get jobs and find friendship.

Ecosystems

Noise made by humans can be bad news for animals

Animals live in a world of sounds. Clever experiments are finally teasing out how human-made noise can cause dangerous distractions.

Science & Society

Big data studies come with replication challenges

As science moves into big data research — analyzing billions of bits of DNA or other data from thousands of research subjects — concern grows that much of what is discovered is fool’s gold.