How to Draw an Exoplanet
A pair of illustrators turned tiny blips in data into vivid views from the TRAPPIST-1 star system.
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NASA Why Did the House Science Committee Overlook NASA's Former Chief Scientist?
Ellen Stofan was the only woman to testify at a congressional hearing about the future of space exploration—and the only person left out of the official tweets about the event.
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Rafael Marchante / Reuters Dogs' Love Isn't Unconditional After All
The more difficult the task, the less likely they will be generous.
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Reuters Is It Okay to Enjoy the Warm Winters of Climate Change?
The weather is nice, but it reminds us of the problems to come.
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Deb Snelson / Getty The 'Rhododendron Situation' and the Tricky Politics of Invasive Plants
“Nothing short of calling the army is going to put it right,” an Irish politician recently said of the shrub’s takeover of a national park.
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Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP A Probiotic Skin Cream Made With a Person’s Own Microbes
A new approach to treating eczema harnesses the defensive bacteria that already live on us.
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NASA / JPL-Caltech Seven Earth-Sized Planets Have Been Spotted Around a Nearby Star
And all of them are in the temperate zone.
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Amir Dalsh / Reuters Why Space Operas Will Never Come True
The universe is just too big.
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Scott Audette / Reuters The NASA Rocket Scientist Leaving Mars for Politics
After 13 years at her dream job at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Tracy Van Houten feels newly called to run for office.
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Nathan Williamson for Gabon National Parks Africa's Other Elephant Is Fading Fast
In a supposedly safe national park, poachers have slaughtered 80 percent of these elusive animals in just ten years.
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Joe Skipper / Reuters SpaceX Goes Two-for-Two on Launches This Year
The company has launched a Falcon 9 rocket from a historic launchpad at Cape Canaveral and landed its first stage upright on solid ground.
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Hyungwon Kang / Reuters NASA's Next Frontier Is Washington
The space agency is in limbo as it waits for direction from Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress.
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J. Scott Applewhite / AP The EPA’s Legal Nemesis Is Confirmed as Its New Leader
Here’s what happens now that Scott Pruitt has been approved by the Senate.
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Wiley Rogers Selling Killer-Clam Shells at the World’s Largest Gem Show
A vendor is using the arresting fossils to fund a curious venture: a menstrual cup factory.
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Daniel Maurer / AP What Can You Do With the World's Largest Family Tree?
Scientists are beginning to find out.
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Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters A Government Website for Kids Scrubbed Its Climate Warnings
In recent weeks, “Energy Kids” has reworked and cut information about fossil fuels’ environmental impact.
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NASA Sweeping Ceres for the Building Blocks of Life
The Dawn spacecraft has detected for the first time evidence of organic compounds on the dwarf planet.
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Steve Helber / AP Congress and Trump Won't 'Terminate the EPA'
Instead, they’ll restrict the agency in far subtler ways.
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Susan Walsh / AP Photo What the CRISPR Patent Decision Means for Gene Editing
The U.S. Patent Office has finally ruled on the century’s biggest biotech discovery.
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Nick Oxford / Reuters Trump's EPA Pick Is Poised to Slide Past a Lawsuit Into Office
The “leading advocate against the EPA” may soon run the agency.
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Connor Mallon/Smithsonian's National Zoo The Life, Times, and Departure of Bao Bao the Panda
Four years after her miraculous birth at Washington, D.C.’s National Zoo, the fluffy celebrity is headed to China.
