Science

From ancient nomads to modern job-hoppers, the urge to move may be written partly into our DNA.People’s tendency to set down roots far from where they were born is partly inherited and grounded in early brain development, researchers report...

People who can’t stop scratching itches may finally have a culprit to blame.In mice (and probably people), a protein called TRPV4 is involved both in starting an itch and stopping it after scratching, says neuroscientist Roberta Gualdani. She will...

MIT.nano has added a new X-ray diffraction (XRD) instrument to its characterization toolset, enhancing facility users’ ability...

Editor’s note: This story contains light spoilers for Project Hail Mary.I have long puzzled over something in Andy Weir’s 2021 book Project Hail Mary: Why did two of the three fictional astronauts die during an interstellar trip? It might be...

The Antarctic Peninsula is an early warning system for the southernmost continent when it comes to climate change. And the prognostications are grim — but it’s not yet too late to avoid irreversible changes, researchers report February 20 in...

New kinds of aircraft taking to the skies could mean unfamiliar sounds overhead — and where you’re hearing them might matter, according to new NASA research. NASA aeronautics has worked for years to enable new air transportation options for people...

Making high-performance proteins for medicines or consumer products can take trial after trial of tweaks, experiments and fine-tuning. A new machine learning framework squeezes all that into a single round of testing.The technique, called MULTI-evolve, predicts how proteins will...

Imagine trying to photograph wind. That’s similar to what NASA engineers dealt with during a recent effort to study how air moves around planes, rockets, and other kinds of aerospace vehicles. Air is invisible, but our understanding of how...

These days, many people can skip the dreaded Pap smear in favor of a far less invasive and more private way to screen for cervical cancer: disposable, DIY swabs that can be used to test for high-risk variants of...

Many people find their flattened faces cute, but among dogs bred with a squished visage, 11 percent or less of some breeds can breathe easily.The findings, published February 18 in PLOS One, evaluate a major health cost of breeding...