Our solar system is a chaotic place – literally. Rewinding orbital possibilities quickly becomes too complex and too numerous for astronomers to calculate. That means we only know the orbital movements of Earth and the other planets over the past 60 million years or so. To look further back, scientists are pulling core samples from deep under Earth’s surface to examine long-ago climate change and learn about how the planets moved hundreds of millions of years ...read more

In today’s world, it might seem like people aren’t connected to nature at all, instead opting to spend their time with modern conveniences like the world wide web. But new research shows that across the globe, people are still paying attention to what’s outside their window — and we can tell by looking at patterns in their Wikipedia pageviews. Scientists, led by conservation biologist-turned-data scientist John Mittermeier at the University of Oxford, looked at 2 billion ...read more

A patient who lived with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) for more than a decade is now free of the disease, researchers report today in the journal Nature. The retreat of the infection is only the second time such a case has been reported. In both instances, the patients received a bone marrow transplant to treat cancer. The scientists say the treatment strategy is not practical as a standard approach for the millions currently living with the illness. They also caution that it is too ear ...read more

When you don't get enough sleep, you can feel drained, sluggish and lazy. So, we sip our coffee, attempting to make it through the day, until it’s time to slip back into bed. But besides the fact that we feel terrible if we don't get enough, researchers have struggled to figure out why humans and animals sleep. A new study by scientists at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, though, may help us find out. While studying brain activity in live zebrafish, they found that ...read more

Emotions might come from the brain, but they often hit us in the heart. That's particularly true for grief, especially the shattering, life-altering kind; the tsunami of anguish that follows a loved ones' death can feel like a physical force inhabiting our chests. In some cases, a broken heart can even transcend metaphor, as with the rarely-seen Takotsubo Syndrome, also known as Broken Heart Syndrome. Sudden onslaughts of intense emotion can in some cases rapidly weaken the heart's mu ...read more

Scattered on the coasts of Antarctica's empty and icy expanse are research stations that resemble villages. The largest of them is McMurdo Station, a research hamlet that houses scientists studying the continent's glaciers, climate and biological life as well as artists, writers and support staff. As the logistics hub for the U.S. Antarctic program, McMurdo has a landing strip and 85 buildings including a radio shack, firehouse and power plant in addition to the dormitor ...read more

New observations of a distant exoplanet and its solar system offer proof of a long-standing astronomical theory: passing stars can perturb planetary systems and change planets’ orbits – for better or worse. Depending on how they pass by, stars can nudge planets into more stable orbits or give them a kick that sends out of the system entirely. And new evidence implies that these kinds of encounters may explain the paths of strange objects in our own solar system, l ...read more

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule successfully completed its first docking with the International Space Station on Sunday morning, following a successful launch Saturday morning. This marks the first time SpaceX has ever docked with ISS under its own power. The Crew Dragon docking went smooth, allaying safety concerns. New Connections Previously, the Dragon cargo capsule has merely flown close before being grabbed by a robotic arm under the control of ISS crewmembers. This was SpaceX’s fi ...read more

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule successfully reached outer space at around 2 a.m. EST Saturday morning. Repeated cheers rang out from the crowds at the Kennedy Space Center launch-site as the capsule passed each flight stage. If the rest of the flight goes well over the next six days, and NASA certifies the capsule is safe, Elon Musk’s rocket company could begin launching astronauts into orbit this summer. That would mark the first time a private company has launched a human into orbit ...read more

(Inside Science) -- Shifting, slipping and colliding tectonic plates played an essential role in the emergence and evolution of life on Earth. Such tectonic activity generated volcanoes that spewed carbon dioxide and other gases into the air. Rain brought the gases down to Earth, where they were pushed underground again by moving plates. For billions of years the cycle has regulated the climate and stabilized the temperature, which helped enable life to arise. Plate tectonics like what's ...read more