Basic Research

NASA Twins Study spots thousands of genes toggling on and off in Scott Kelly

By Rashmi Shivni

When astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth after a year floating about the International Space Station, he was noticeably different from his identical twin, Mark Kelly.

Why Cuba is home to a bounty of rare species

By Miles O'Brien

Replete with rare and endangered species, Cuba is a crown jewel of biodiversity in the Caribbean. Science correspondent Miles O'Brien reports on the ways scientists and conservationists are working to survey and protect the island’s rich, and sometimes unique, wildlife…

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Fact or fiction: Do redheads feel more pain?

By Julia Griffin, Nsikan Akpan

Redheads are rumored feel more pain and need more painkillers than their blonde and brown-haired cousins, but the science itself is murky.

This Japanese ‘hidden figure’ enlightened the world with her sunspot sketches

By Rashmi Shivni

Hisako Koyama's lifelong passion for the glimmering sky and her meticulous sunspot drawings shaped the modern field of space weather.

Neutron star collision offers new source of gravitational waves

By Rashmi Shivni

Astronomers have discovered a collision of neutron stars that released both a stream of gravitational waves and a flash of light, backing one of Einstein's theories.

How a brain gets hooked on opioids

By Nsikan Akpan, Julia Griffin

Here is the neuroscience behind how opioids overtake the human brain.

2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry awarded to ‘cool’ 3D pictures of bioarchitecture

By Nsikan Akpan

Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson have won the 2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing a way to image biomolecules at cold temperatures.

LIGO gravitational wave discoverers win 2017 Nobel Prize in physics

By Nsikan Akpan

Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne have won the 2017 Nobel Prize for physics for leading the projects that discovered gravitational waves and proved an century-old Einstein theory.

Three Americans win 2017 Nobel Prize in medicine for research on circadian clocks

By Nsikan Akpan

Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young won the 2017 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine on Monday for their research into what controls circadian rhythms.

Tropical forests now emit more carbon than they soak up

By Teresa Carey

Due to human destruction, tropical forests, long considered to be "carbon sinks," now produce more carbon emissions each year than all U.S. cars and trucks combined, according to a study published Thursday in Science.