Science

Kate Adamala has a vision of the future. In it, biology would replace chemical manufacturing.“Ultimate success,” says the synthetic biologist, would be that “all the atoms we’re moving in our economy are moved with biology.”Adamala and her colleagues at...

“Shock and awe.” That was Fatimah Jackson’s reaction when police dropped a makeshift bomb onto a residential building in Philadelphia on May 13, 1985. The brick-faced row house was the communal home of MOVE, an organization that advocated for...

New research led by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California has revealed the identity of a puzzling near-Earth object by precisely tracking its motion through space and using powerful observatories that image faint celestial objects. This object...

Jeff Carroll was in his mid-twenties, fresh out of the U.S. Army, when a genetic test confirmed his worst fear: He was going to develop Huntington’s disease.He had watched his mother’s illness for years; the tremors first, small enough...

Testing new aerospace concepts in flight remains one of NASA’s most effective ways to advance knowledge and reduce risk. The Dale Reed Subscale Flight Research Laboratory at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, supports this mission by using...

Susumu Tonegawa, the Picower Professor of Biology and Neuroscience at MIT and a Nobel laureate, died July 11 at the age of 86.Tonegawa was a renowned molecular biologist who wielded his keen insight in a variety of fields, including...

LONDON — An experimental drug can sweep tangles of tau from the brain, raising hopes that the treatment could help Alzheimer’s disease patients, according to clinical trial data released July 14.The compound, called diranersen and developed by pharma giant...

A new global map shows how gigantic bands of water vapor travel along networks of interconnected highways in the sky.When these atmospheric rivers make landfall, they can cause floods, blizzards, landslides and even heat waves. But their timing and...

No one wants to get into an uncomfortable aircraft. NASA research could help the emerging industry of air taxis —small, vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft meant for short trips — understand the relationship between comfort and willingness to fly. That’s where NASA comes...