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New Research

Since diamonds are forever, your data could be, too.

New Research

New Method Could Store Massive Amounts of Data in Diamond Defects

Scientists use lasers to probe the gem’s flaws, creating data storage that could potentially last forever

Scientists are using genetic sequencing to reconstruct how AIDS hit the United States in the 1970s and 1980s.

New Research

Genetic Sleuthing Clears ‘Patient Zero’ of Blame for U.S. AIDS Epidemic

Scientists debunk the myth of the man once thought to have brought the virus to the states

Two natural color images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show the changing appearance of Saturn's north polar region between 2012 and 2016.

New Research

The Swirling Storm Above Saturn’s North Pole Changed Colors

The years-long shift may be a sign of changing seasons

One of the subjects of a new study on how the human nervous system responds to tactile intensity cracks an egg with ease with the help of an experimental prosthetic device.

New Research

How Hacking Neural Networks Can Help Amputees Flawlessly Crack an Egg

By tapping into the body’s nervous system, researchers could create touch-sensitive prosthetics

Marián Cueto, author of a new study on fossilized cave lion claws, working in La Garma.

New Research

Humans May Have Hunted Cave Lions to Extinction—For Throw Rugs

Dear cave lions: We’re so, so sorry.

Trending Today

Jive to the Academic Beat With This Year’s “Dance Your Ph.D.” Winners

Sometimes explaining complex scientific research requires a cow doing the worm, glittering e. coli and an immune cell with a killer plie

Cool Finds

Magnificent Millipede Has 414 Legs and Four Penises

Meet Illacme tobini, a newly described species of millipede discovered in a cave in Sequoia National Park

Why do some people seem able to lie without feeling bad?

New Research

How White Lies Snowball Into Full-On Deception

Using brain scans, researchers find evidence that bad feelings associated with lying lessen over time

Heavy drinking can cause brain changes that make you want to drink more.

How a Genetically Engineered Virus Could Help the Brain Fight Alcohol Cravings

Heavy drinking can change the brain to make cravings worse. Can gene therapy change it back?

Striations on teeth of a Homo habilis fossil 1.8 million years old suggest the earliest evidence in the fossil record for right-handedness. Researchers believe the marks came from using a tool to try to cut food being pulled from the mouth with the left hand.

New Research

Two-Million-Year-Old Jaw Has a Lot to Say About the Origins of Human Handedness

Scientists have discovered one of the earliest examples of handedness in an ancient human

New Research

Pediatricians Switch Up Screen Time Rules for Tots

Doctors say there’s no “one size fits all” approach to introducing kids to technology

Tombac, a form of tobacco, grows on a farm in Darfur. The plant could one day be used to create cheaper, better anti-malarial drugs.

New Research

Scientists Hijacked Tobacco Plants to Make Malaria Drugs

A promising new advance could make the world’s best anti-malarial drug more widely available

New Research

Scientists Just Discovered a Missing Link Between San Francisco’s Faults

Two of California’s most active fault lines appear to be a 118-mile-long fault instead

A coal power plant in Mehrum, Germany.

Future of Energy

Scientists Stumble on a New Way to Tackle Carbon Emissions: Turn It Into Alcohol

A surprising new use for nanotechnology essentially reverses combustion

A new map reveals the most detailed picture of hydrogen atoms in the Milky Way ever made.

New Research

This Breathtaking Map Traces Hydrogen Throughout the Milky Way

Scientists have made the most detailed map of our home galaxy’s hydrogen currently possible

New Research

Neanderthals May Have Given Us Both Good Genes and Nasty Diseases

DNA analysis shows ancient hominds transmitted genes that may have helped us adapt quicker to Europe and Asia. They also gave us HPV.

Wild capuchins make stone tools, but don't know how to use them.

Wild Monkeys Unintentionally Make Stone Age Tools, But Don’t See the Point

Scientists observe a “unique” human behavior in wild animals

New Research

Cave Paintings Help Unravel the Mystery of the ‘Higgs Bison’

The hybrid bovine has been a missing link in the ancestral tree of modern European bison

To make Tumor Paint, Jim Olson's team extracts molecules from the deathstalker scorpion (Leiurus quinquestriatus).

The Innovative Spirit fy17

How Scorpion Venom Is Helping Doctors Treat Cancer

When injected into the body, Tumor Paint lights up cancers. The drug could lead to a new class of therapeutics

Anthropologists have long debated the origins of human violence.

Can Resource Scarcity Really Explain a History of Human Violence?

Data from thousands of California burial sites suggests that a lack of resources causes violence. But that conclusion may be too simplistic

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