The adult human brain contains somewhere between 86 and 100 billion neurons. Each of those neurons can form thousands of synaptic connections. For most of the twentieth century, scientists believed that after a certain point in childhood, the architecture of …

A brainy human relative who lived during an ice age nearly 150,000 years ago adapted to the bitter cold by developing a sophisticated stone-tool industry, according to a new study of a crystal-studded rib bone found in China.

One of the coolest things about Star Trek is that this franchise has had plenty of world-building from the very … Continue reading "Star Trek’s Biggest Mystery Was Answered By One Forgotten Episode"

A team of U.S. astronomers has observed a binary pair of white dwarfs where one star is actively devouring material from the other. Led by Emma Chickles at MIT, the researchers revealed one of the clearest views yet of how ultracompact white dwarf binaries ex…

Both halves of this claim are well supported, and neither rests on a single study. About 8 percent of the human genome, by the standard estimate, consists of sequences left behind by ancient retroviruses. And among those sequences are a small number of genes …

"We need to be extremely cautious."

A new Yale study identifies a distinct species of eyeless cavefish, a discovery that challenges long-held conventional wisdom that caves and other subterranean ecosystems are evolutionary dead ends.

Unusual stellar remnants suggest the Milky Way might have eaten a galaxy called Loki billions of years ago, according to new research.

Once dismissed as empty expanses between galaxies, cosmic voids are becoming one of the most promising tools for probing the universe’s biggest mysteries.