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How and When Did Saturn Get Those Magnificent Rings?
The planet’s rings are coy when it comes to revealing their age, but astronomers are getting closer
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Latest National Report Card Shows Little Student Improvement in Music and Art
This is the third time that the National Center for Educational Statistics has assessed eight-graders in music and visual arts
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Scientists Make Sturdy Bricks From Mars-Like Soils
Their findings may be a step forward in the mission to build structures on the Red Planet
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Why Mother and Baby Humpback Whales Whisper to One Another
The quiet communication helps them avoid killer whales and randy male humpbacks
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Scientists Extract DNA From Ancient Humans Out of Cave Dirt
The new technique promises to transform the study of the hominid family tree
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Students’ Brains Sync Up When They’re in an Engaging Class, Neuroscience Shows
What does it really mean to get our brains on the same wavelength?
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The Secret Behind Bioluminescent Mushrooms’ Magic Glow
Scientists use chemistry to account for an astonishing phenomenon
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Dog Genome Project Reveals Secrets of Canine Family Tree
Researchers have been barking up the same tree for over 20 years
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A Grand Unified Theory of Pooping
Why you and an elephant spend the same amount of time on the john
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Cassini Sends Back First Images From Its Saturn Dives
The stream of raw images include new pictures of the strange hexagonal storm swirling around its north pole
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Threatened Species? Science to the (Genetic) Rescue!
This still-controversial conservation technique will never be a species’ panacea. But it might provide a crucial stop-gap
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What Coconuts Can Tell Us About Escaping Alcatraz
Researchers are using GPS-enabled coconuts to monitor currents to determine if three men could have survived a 1962 escape from “The Rock”
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DNA Could Identify the Sailors (Including Women) of the Doomed Franklin Expedition
New analysis on bone and and tooth fragments will allow researchers to learn more about the ill-fated crew
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Remarkable New Evidence for Human Activity in North America 130,000 Years Ago
Researchers say prehistoric mastodon bones bear human-made markings
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This Caterpillar Can Eat Plastic
The find could lead to new techniques for breaking down our ever-growing plastic waste
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Bones of the Hawaiian Petrel Open Up a Window Into the Birds’ Changing Diet
Industrial fishing may play a role in the shift
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The “Hobbits” Could Be Much Older Than Once Thought
The Flores hobbits’ ancestor may have ventured out of Africa much earlier than previously thought
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How Scientists Use Teeny Bits of Leftover DNA to Solve Wildlife Mysteries
Environmental DNA helps biologists track rare, elusive species. It could usher in a revolution for conservation biology
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Amateur Skywatchers Spot New Atmospheric Phenomenon
Its name is Steve, and it’s more common than you might think
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Naked Mole-Rats Can Survive for 18 Minutes Without Oxygen
Just when you thought the wrinkly creatures couldn’t get any stranger
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