Planetary scientists propose an alternative theory to explain why Sputnik Planitia has stayed put across Pluto’s equator.

Researchers hope to use social media posts to identify population-wide spikes in depression. That approach could miss Black people, a study shows.

The moon of Jupiter is considered one of the most promising places to look for life, but its subsurface ocean may be less habitable than once thought.

Past viral spillover events underscore the importance of protecting wildlife habitats.

The public health researcher focuses on what kinds of support people with autism need rather than on treating the condition as a disease to cure.

Neuroendocrine cells can sense substances on the way to the lungs and prompt reactions such as coughing and swallowing, experiments in mice show.

An analysis of the moon’s atmospheric composition suggests that it has been spewing sulfur for roughly 4.6 billion years.

A reexamined Chinese site points to a cultural mix of Homo sapiens with Neandertals or Denisovans.

A method to force fruit flies to move shows the insects’ stepping behavior and holds clues to other animals’ brains and movement.

After some bumblebee queens were accidentally submerged in water and survived, researchers found them to be surprisingly tolerant of flooding.

The FDA recently approved a menstrual blood test for diabetes, the first diagnostic of any kind based on period blood. It may be just the beginning.

Journalist Bianca Bosker infiltrates the secretive art world to understand the science and psychology of why art matters to the human experience.

Using machine learning, researchers trained Emo to make facial expressions in sync with humans.

Discovered in Australia, the beetle is covered in whitish hairs and has distinctive eye lobes, antennae and leg shapes.

In the 1970s, lab tests hinted that birds can navigate using magnetic fields. New studies suggest that beak and eye proteins are behind the ability.

Hidden depths Slight changes in the orbit of Saturn’s moon Mimas hint at the presence of a vast, young ocean beneath the satellite’s icy surface that may have formed between 5 million and 50 million years ago, Adam Mann ... [more]

Editor in chief Nancy Shute discusses a new approach for managing wildfires that includes collaboration with local and Indigenous communities.

The protein assembles itself into a repeating triangle pattern. The fractal seems to be an accident of evolution, scientists say.

Scientists found a pair of mating crab spiders blending in with a flower. The report may be the first known case of cooperative camouflage in spiders.

An alga’s bacterial symbiote has evolved into an organelle that turns atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, making the alga unique among eukaryotes.