Out There
Telescope That ‘Ate Astronomy’ Is on Track to Surpass Hubble
After 20 years, the James Webb Space Telescope is now on schedule for a 2018 launch.
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Credit ScienceTake
Figaro, the Toolmaking Cockatoo
What a bird in Vienna could do with his beak and a few raw materials like bamboo and even cardboard was enough to impress scientists.
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CreditThomas O'Neill/NurPhoto, via Getty Images Trilobites
Who First Farmed Potatoes? Archaeologists in Andes Find New Evidence
Archaeologists have found ancient starch grains pinpointing the Titicaca Basin of southern Peru as a hearth of early potato cultivation.
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CreditDetlev van Ravenswaay/Science Source Trilobites
Drilling Into the Chicxulub Crater, Ground Zero of the Dinosaur Extinction
By studying hills that formed after an asteroid struck the Yucatán Peninsula, researchers found that materials deep in Earth’s crust were brought toward the surface.
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CreditKim Murton This Thanksgiving, Be Thankful for Science
We're not saying you can't talk about politics on Thanksgiving. But here are some conversation starters about science and medicine for your dinner table.
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CreditNASA Mercury Is Shrinking, a ‘Great Valley’ Shows
The canyon is about the size of Montana and twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, and the planet’s cooling may have led to its formation.
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CreditDavid Drag/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign With an Eye on Hunger, Scientists See Promise in Genetic Tinkering of Plants
By altering photosynthesis in tobacco, researchers improved the plant’s production, a method they hope will prove successful in food crops.
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CreditIan C. Bates for The New York Times Microsoft Spends Big to Build a Computer Out of Science Fiction
The computer giant says it’s ready to start planning a prototype quantum computer, a superpowerful device that relies on subatomic particles instead of transistors.
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CreditMichael H. Stephenson/British Geological Survey In Canada, a Direct Link Between Fracking and Earthquakes
Most fracking-induced quakes in the United States are related to wastewater disposal from oil and gas wells. Scientists see a different culprit in Alberta.
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CreditTimothy A. Clary/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Your A.T.M. Is Covered in Microbes, but Mostly Harmless
To researchers, automated teller machines are like miniature laboratories where they can study the DNA of a city.
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CreditZhao Chuang A Dinosaur With a Beak and Feathers Unearthed in China
Construction workers dynamiting rock for a new school unearthed the fossil of an “alien-looking” dinosaur.
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CreditFlip Nicklin/Minden Pictures Narwhals, Tusked Whales of the Arctic, See With Sound. Really Well.
Researchers tracked narwhals and found that they reconstruct their underwater world with more resolution that most other animals on the planet.
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CreditJ.J. Harrison Birds Can Be Drawn to the Scent of Plastic
A new study finds that plastic debris in the oceans carries a smell similar to other sources of their food.
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CreditJames Rajotte for The New York Times An Ancient Tsunami That Ended a Civilization Gets Another Look
New research finds ash and lava from the Santorini volcano in the Aegean Sea spawned the tsunami that struck the island of Crete, the center of Minoan culture.
