What if we could take a picture of an Earth-like planet around another star that was sharp enough to see continents, oceans, and clouds? Right now, it's impossible. From our vantage point, exoplanets—planets orbiting other stars—look like fireflies next to spotlights. In the few images we've managed to take of them, the exoplanets are mere dots.

"I think in about 10 years, we should see some very tangible practical applications of these bionic eyes."

Researchers have created an embryo containing both human and mouse cells in a major advancement of genetically modified organisms. The hybrid embryo, referred to as a human-animal chimera, was grown by a team at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Researchers in Australia have achieved a world record internet speed of 44.2 terabits per second, allowing users to download 1,000 HD movies in a single second. A team from Monash, Swinburne and RMIT universities used a “micro-comb” optical chip containing hundreds of infrared lasers to transfer data across existing communications infrastructure in Melbourne.

Future astronauts could make lunar buildings out of moon dust and pee. That’s the suggestion of chemist Anna-Lena Kjøniksen and her colleagues, who made a cement from urea — a major component of urine — and faux lunar soil. When humans take up long-term residence on other planets or the moon, they will need to pack light, in part because shipping materials from Earth is expensive. NASA has estimated that every pound of material sent into orbit around the Earth costs around $10,000.

An update of 50-year-old regulations has kickstarted research into the next generation of rockets. Powered by nuclear fission, these new systems could be the key to faster, safer exploration of space.

A forthcoming facility in California promises to transform tens of thousands of tons of landfill garbage into hydrogen each year. It hopes to be running by 2023.

Before there were animals, bacteria or even DNA on Earth, self-replicating molecules were slowly evolving their way from simple matter to life beneath a constant shower of energetic particles from space. In a new paper, a Stanford professor and a former post-doctoral scholar speculate that this interaction between ancient proto-organisms and cosmic rays may be responsible for a crucial structural preference, called chirality, in biological molecules. If their idea is correct, it suggests that all life throughout the universe could share the same chiral preference.

Car traffic took a big dip beginning in late March, and headlines celebrated clean air around the U.S. But an NPR analysis of EPA data tells a more troubling story.

Penicillin, one of the greatest discoveries in the history of medicine, was a product of chance. After returning from summer vacation in September 1928, bacteriologist Alexander Fleming found a col…

Particles may outnumber zooplankton, which underpin marine life and regulate climate

On Jan. 18, 2000, a fireball lit up the morning sky over Yukon and northern British Columbia. Loud bangs shook the area, and dust clouds wafted in the upper atmosphere. The culprit: a five-metre rock that entered Earth's atmosphere. While most of the roughly 105-tonne meteor broke up on entry, some fragments showered down to the frozen landscape, much of it on Tagish Lake, B.C.

In biology, the “dual-use” problem means that the techniques used to pursue legitimate research are the same as those used to engineer a bioweapon.

An unseen object—probably a black hole—orbits with two normal stars in our cosmic neighborhood.

Recent research highlights the power of the canine nose to uncover buried remains from ancient human history.

As unemployment levels rise, so does stress — and the number of deaths from stomach ulcers. Researchers have now identified brain regions that control stomach function, findings that could explain how stress contributes to ulcers and other gastrointestinal disorders.

This month, the cover of New Scientist ran the headline, “Is the Universe Conscious?” Mathematician and physicist Johannes Kleiner, at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy in Germany, told author Michael Brooks that a mathematically precise definition of consciousness could mean that the cosmos is suffused with subjective experience. “This could be the beginning of a scientific revolution,” Kleiner said, referring to research he and others have been conducting.

On Saturday, the US Air Force is expected to launch its secret space plane, X-37B, for a long-duration mission in low Earth orbit. The robotic orbiter looks like a smaller version of the space shuttle and has spent nearly eight of the past 10 years in space conducting classified experiments for the military. Almost nothing is known about what X-37B does up there, but ahead of its sixth launch the Air Force gave some rare details about its cargo.

Archaeologists have long studied diseases in past populations. They've explored the evolution of pathogens and how they interacted with humans.

The researchers found that their machine learning algorithm was able to detect, segment, quantify and differentiate between types of brain lesions using images of CT scans.