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Such massive, early supermassive black holes have puzzled astronomers for decades. At last, we've finally figured out how they form.

Nothing has ever come closer than NASA’s Voyager 1, nearly 40 years ago. Last week, all that changed. “Juno will peer hundreds of miles downward into the atmosphere with its microwave […]

It’s the first day of school here in Ames, Iowa. In past years, I’ve posted the following checklist, wondering if schools have made any improvement since the previous fall. This […]

Psychologists are finding that moral code violations can leave an enduring mark — and may require new types of therapy.

It is humanity's biggest step yet into the Solar System.

Astronomers have been looking for radio waves sent by a distant civilization for more than 60 years.

There may be a faster, less-painful way to use radiation against cancer.

Many countries just ship their plastic waste overseas.

The DART mission tested whether it's possible to deflect an asteroid by crashing something into it.

HIV mutates rapidly, which has made the development of a vaccine an enormous challenge for decades. Finally, we might have one.

The Greeks were among the first to move beyond “primitive money” and establish an official currency, transforming their trade, government, and even philosophy.

"Politics is weird. It’s the only business in the world in which you take a really, really important position, and you give it to someone with no qualifications." —Tony Blair

Now that it's fully commissioned, the James Webb Space Telescope begins its exploration of the Universe. Here are its first science images!

With its very first deep-field view of the Universe now released, the James Webb Space Telescope has shown us our cosmos as never before.

The James Webb Space Telescope has chosen 5 targets for its first science release. Here's what we know on the eve of JWST's big reveal!

For the very first time, an AR contact lens was worn on the eye of a human subject. And it has about 30 times the pixel density of an iPhone.

Scientists have discovered enzymes from several plastic-eating bacteria. So, why are our oceans still full of plastic pollution?

The last time the population shrank was during the great famine of 1959-61.

Now they're pointing the way to future battery technologies.

Elastic thinking can reveal the assumptions that hamstring our ability to solve seemingly intractable problems.

The "Clovis First" hypothesis for human settlement of North and South America has just been debunked. Where do we go from here?

The Human Genome Project put together 92% of our DNA blueprint. Here's what it took to complete the rest.

The Hubble Space Telescope, 32 years after its launch, broke the all-time record for most distant star. It won't do better.

In 1990, we only knew of the planets in our own Solar System. Today, the exoplanet count is more than 5000. Here's what we've learned.

Aerial drone footage was sent to an AI trained to track down space rocks.

Planet Earth has been around for over 4.5 billion years, but humans? For 99.998% of our planet's history, humans were nowhere to be found.

Our research on a Martian meteorite provides new clues about early surface conditions on the red planet.

OCD and addiction may result in part from improper “reward” pathways in the brain. Ultrasound can disrupt those pathways.

Hybrid animals emere when two different species from the same family reproduce. For many years, the kunga’s lineage was just another genetic mystery. 

Washington believed that particular Thanksgiving in 1789 was a crucial occasion.