Science

A newly discovered microbe is like a mini version of the Hulk.Euplotes gigatrox is a single-celled protist that resembles an insect. It grazes on bacteria and other tiny microbes. Sometimes a small number of the protists balloon into “supergiants”...

Mirrors are tricky. Even humans aren’t born with an intuitive understanding of them; we have to learn how they work. Now, scientists have discovered that the California two-spot octopus (Octopus bimaculoides) can also learn to use mirrors, researchers report...

The NASA Ames Science Directorate recognizes the outstanding contributions of (pictured left to right) Sungshin Choi, Yi-Chun Chen, Emma Yates, Eduardo Bendek. Their commitment to the NASA mission represents the entrepreneurial spirit, technical expertise, and collaborative disposition needed to...

The ordinary graphite in pencil lead is proving to be surprisingly multifaceted at the microscale. In a study...

NASA has announced the top student-developed solutions for environmental control and life support systems in future crewed lunar landers from participants in the 2026 Human Lander Challenge. The announcement marks the culmination of months of research by university teams...

For NASA’s next generation of deep space exploration missions, spacecraft may need to refuel in Earth orbit before pushing farther into the solar system. Similar to how a gas pump needs a nozzle to fit your fuel tank, future...

Artificial intelligence is getting better at everything, including hacking. It’s becoming easier than ever before to steal someone’s identity, cripple sensitive banking and health care systems, or hold a company’s data ransom. And if cybersecurity defenders aren’t ready, cyber...

A kilometer down in the ocean, football-sized roly-polies slowly clamber along the seafloor. Their metabolism is so slow that they can go years between meals. Now, researchers have found a genetic quirk that helps explain the evolution of these...

“Illuminating.” “Spectacular.” “Compelling.” This is how community college students described the two days they spent at MIT.nano...

Healthy brains may be built through a process of controlled damage and rapid repair.The most dangerous type of DNA damage is a regular feature of healthy early brain development, experiments in mice show. As newborn neurons squeeze through the...