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Mar 19, 2019
"I find that I am bored with anything I understand," Karen Uhlenbeck once said. That sentiment is part of why she won what many call the Nobel of mathematics Tuesday.
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Mar 19, 2019
March Madness is here, and college basketball is in the spotlight. When it comes to making free throws, who is better: College players who would eventually go pro, or players who would never go pro?
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Mar 16, 2019
With expanding markets for hemp and marijuana, some students believe that taking the class could help their careers. "I'm definitely interested in the plant and where it can go," Madison Blake said.
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Mar 15, 2019
Emma Haruka Iwao has computed over 31 trillion of its digits. She and her team calculated 31,415,926,535,897 digits of pi — crushing a 2016 record by trillions of digits.
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Mar 14, 2019
Some linguists are arguing that the advent of softer food, thousands of years ago, led to changes in biting patterns and eventually, to more frequent use of sounds like "f" and "v" in human language.
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Mar 13, 2019
An international group of 18 prominent scientists and bioethicists is calling for countries around the world to impose a moratorium on the creation of babies whose genes have been altered in the lab.
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Mar 13, 2019
An international group of 18 prominent scientists and bioethicists is calling for countries around the world to impose a moratorium on the creation of babies whose genes have been altered in the lab.
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Mar 10, 2019
Getting DNA into plant cells is tricky. Researchers have tried using infectious bacteria, as well as gene guns that shoot gold bullets. Then a physicist came up with a new approach almost by accident.
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Mar 08, 2019
Researchers think genetically engineered versions of microbes that can live in humans could help treat some rare genetic disorders and perhaps help with Type 1 diabetes, cirrhosis and cancer.
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Mar 07, 2019
To outsmart influenza, researchers are leveraging the biological information encoded in infection-fighting antibodies to design new drugs. One attempt neutralizes near-lethal levels of flu in mice.
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Mar 07, 2019
New research finds that partisans agree with bumper sticker slogans — unless they are told that those slogans were made by a leader of the opposing party.
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Mar 05, 2019
For the second time ever, a man's HIV infection has been sent into remission. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Rowena Johnston, director of research for the Foundation for AIDS Research.
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Mar 05, 2019
Doctors in London say they've successfully treated an HIV patient, but the treatment is dangerous and expensive. The news comes 12 years after a different patient was declared cured of AIDS.
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Feb 28, 2019
They initially thought it was a type of fish known to swim near Santa Barbara. But by collaborating with Australian scientists, they found it was a species never before documented in North America.
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Feb 26, 2019
Most patients do fine, research suggests, when the lead surgeon steps away to begin another procedure. But patients who are older or have underlying medical conditions sometimes fare worse.
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Feb 21, 2019
The bee towers over its apian cousins. Females have been recorded as being at least an inch and a half long. Add to that a pair of gigantic mandibles, and it's a bee like no other.
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Feb 20, 2019
The insects were created, using CRISPR, to carry a powerful "gene drive." The mosquitoes could provide a potent weapon against malaria, but they raise fears about unpredictable environmental effects.
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Feb 18, 2019
Remarkably little is known about the fundamentals of how a woman carries a baby inside her. Two Columbia University researchers aim to change that, to reduce the number of kids born too soon.
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Feb 17, 2019
James Heathers is a postdoctoral researcher at Northeastern University, who looks for mistakes for fun. He speaks to NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks about errors published in scientific papers.
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Feb 14, 2019
African-Americans still have the highest death rate and the lowest survival rate of any U.S. racial or ethnic group for most cancers. But the "cancer gap" between blacks and whites is shrinking.
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Feb 14, 2019
WHO acted in reaction to a Chinese scientist's announcement in 2018 that he had created the world's first gene-edited babies, a step that highlighted the need for uniform gene-editing guidelines.
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Feb 13, 2019
After years of being beaten up, this teen decided to take justice into his own hands. A school district in Oregon showed him a better way to solve his problems.
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Feb 13, 2019
Sound travels differently through open fields than the woods. When deer eat up bushes, small trees and other forest plants, it affects the transmission of bird calls and other natural sounds.
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Feb 13, 2019
With the rise of antibiotic-resistant infections, scientists are exploring nature to find new disease-fighting compounds. They're finding them in surprising new places: the microbiomes of insects.
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Feb 12, 2019
They had initially thought the object four billion miles from Earth looked like a snowman. The New Horizons spacecraft flew by it on New Year's Day and new images give scientists a clearer picture.
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Feb 12, 2019
The Hornet played a role in several key events in the war - including the Doolittle Raid on Japan and the Battle of Midway. Researches have located it three miles below the surface.
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Feb 07, 2019
A new study suggests that being a morning person makes you slightly less susceptible to depression or mental illness. It, however, is not a very big effect.
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Feb 04, 2019
Researchers say the metabolism of a woman's brain remains higher than a man's throughout a lifetime. And that may help with late-life creativity and learning.
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Feb 04, 2019
Researchers say the metabolism of a woman's brain remains higher than a man's throughout a lifetime. And that may help with late-life creativity and learning.
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Feb 04, 2019
Physicians have been taught to look for signs of hopelessness, sadness and lack of motivation to help them diagnose depression. But anger as a depression symptom is less often noticed or addressed.
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Feb 01, 2019
Senate rebukes Trump's Syria decision. Legal documents allegedly detail allegations of years of deceptive opioid practices. A new experiment in the U.S. aimes at creating gene-edited human embryos.
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Feb 01, 2019
Despite outrage over gene editing in China that affected the birth of twins, research is underway in the U.S. to assess the safety and effectiveness of CRISPR tools to edit genes in human embryos.
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Jan 31, 2019
Space scientists on Earth have improvised a tool on the Mars rover to help them figure out how a giant mountain on the Red Planet came to be. Their surprising conclusion: It's likely windswept sand.
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Jan 31, 2019
In the search for what triggers sleep, researchers stumbled upon a link between sleep and the immune system. A single fly gene gets turned on in sick flies, inducing sleep and an immune response.
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Jan 31, 2019
Environmentalists say the number of monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico's forests is up dramatically. That's good news after years of drastic decline, but researchers warn it might not last.
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Jan 30, 2019
Sea stars along the Pacific Coast are dying in the largest disease epidemic ever documented in a wild marine species. New research suggests warmer water is making the disease even more deadly.
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Jan 25, 2019
U.S. prescriptions for Valium, Ativan and other benzodiazepines have shot up since 2003, statistics show, especially for chronic pain. Roughly half those prescriptions are from primary care providers.
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Jan 24, 2019
As a child on a New York farm, Eben Bayer helped his dad shovel wood chips in the barn. That's where he noticed a stretchy web of fungus that became the basis of his biodegradable packing material.
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Jan 23, 2019
Accounts vary of what happened when students faced an Native American elder in Washington. Steve Inskeep talks to Adam Benforado, author of Unfair who argues camera angles undermine our legal system.
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Jan 22, 2019
Investigations of Russian influence on the 2016 election have tended to focus on the role of social media. Researchers are also exploring the psychological vulnerability that hackers exploited.
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Jan 21, 2019
It's looking like MS strikes when a variety of triggers gang up to impair neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Researchers are using their new knowledge to search for treatments.
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Jan 17, 2019
Researchers have pinpointed the neurons that give pain its unpleasant edge. By turning these neurons off in mice, the scientists relieved the unpleasantness of pain without numbing sensation.
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Jan 16, 2019
Whether it's exercise or housework, older Americans who move their bodies regularly may preserve more of their memory and thinking skills, even if they have brain lesions and other signs of dementia.
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Jan 16, 2019
An insect-killing bacteria that lives inside a parasitic worm might hold the key to developing a powerful new repellent.
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Jan 14, 2019
Creating an exercise habit doesn't mean you have to spend hours sweating on a treadmill. Start small, build up slowly and remember that all movement counts — even vacuuming, if you do it vigorously.
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Jan 14, 2019
Americans now have a 1 in 96 chance of dying from an opioid overdose, according to a new analysis from the National Safety Council.
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Jan 10, 2019
Pregnant women in intensive care with severe cases of the flu have a higher risk of giving birth to babies prematurely. The risk of breathing problems for the baby is also substantially higher.
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Jan 10, 2019
A new study shows that when ads made hedonistic marketing claims, such as "exotic" or "delicious," rather than targeting environmental interests, more people were willing to try eating insects.
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Jan 09, 2019
Analysis of fossilized dental tartar of a medieval woman buried in a German monastery reveals specks of blue to be lapis lazuli — a luxurious pigment used to create gorgeous illuminated manuscripts.
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Jan 09, 2019
Analysis of fossilized dental tartar of a medieval woman buried in a German monastery reveals specks of blue to be lapis lazuli — a luxurious pigment used to create gorgeous illuminated manuscripts.
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Jan 08, 2019
A study shows that rating systems for online marketplaces are prone to inflation, because raters feel pressured to leave high scores.
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Jan 03, 2019
Scientists have re-engineered photosynthesis, the foundation of life on Earth, creating genetically modified plants that grow faster and bigger. They hope it leads to bigger harvests of food.
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Jan 02, 2019
The instruction many students get is not based on the overwhelming scientific evidence about how kids turn spoken sounds into letters and words on a page.
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Jan 01, 2019
As a freezing winter drives many of us indoors, some extreme athletes embrace the cold as a great way to burn calories and retrain the immune system while working out. Not so fast, physiologists say.
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Jan 01, 2019
Using Medicaid payment data from towns in Alaska that have rejected fluoride in recent years, a new study supports dentists' claims that teeth get worse when the water supply is not fluoridated.
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Dec 31, 2018
Adorable babies and cute puppies can make us happy. But researchers say their cuteness can be so overwhelming that it unleashes some ugly thoughts.
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Dec 29, 2018
Half of the parents of young children in a recent survey said their kids fear going to the doctor. Some admit skipping vaccines and needed appointments. Here's how to nip medical anxiety in the bud.
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Dec 25, 2018
A study shows gift-givers and gift-recipients differ on ideas about best gifts. Whereas recipients prefer sentimental gifts, gift-givers tend to opt for presents that match the recipient's interests.
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Dec 24, 2018
A growing body of research shows keeping a log of what you are thankful for can lower stress, help you sleep better, and may even reduce the risk of heart disease. But it's not for everyone.
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Dec 24, 2018
A question about heading soccer balls inspired a series of experiments to understand how the brain changes shape when someone's head takes a hit.
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Dec 22, 2018
A study found parachutes were no more effective than backpacks in preventing harm to people jumping from aircraft. The researchers' tongue-in-cheek experiment makes a deeper point about science.
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Dec 21, 2018
The European Space Agency's new images show a 51-mile-wide ice-filled depression in the surface of Mars caused by the impact of a meteorite or other celestial body.
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Dec 21, 2018
The Mersenne prime was discovered by a computer in Ocala, Fla., on Dec. 7. Mathematicians have spent the past two weeks verifying the calculations.
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Dec 21, 2018
Research suggests the winter blues are triggered by specialized light-sensing cells in the retina that communicate directly with brain areas involved in mood.
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Dec 19, 2018
As the number of people who inject drugs and share needles has soared, the rate of infection with Hep C has climbed too. Yet many drug treatment patients aren't tested for the liver-damaging virus.
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Dec 18, 2018
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams issued a forceful advisory about vaping by U.S. teenagers, saying electronic cigarette use among young people has reached levels that require urgent action.
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Dec 17, 2018
When Nikki and Danny Miller's two young sons developed strange symptoms, they began searching for a diagnosis. Their odyssey ended when a team of medical sleuths solved the case.
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Dec 13, 2018
U.S. National Academy of Medicine, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and Chinese Academy of Sciences call for international gene-editing standards. Critics blast statement as inadequate.
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Dec 12, 2018
When fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, infiltrated the drug supply in the U.S. it had an immediate, dramatic effect on the overdose rate.
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Dec 12, 2018
The U.S. government says warming ocean temperatures and melting ice has resulted in the "most unprecedented transition in history" in the Arctic, leading to extreme weather events across the globe.
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Dec 11, 2018
A team of researchers had been trying to determine whether the armored cruiser was lost to sabotage, an accident or an attack.
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Dec 11, 2018
Hundreds of newspapers have closed across the country. The loss of local reporting means fewer investigations into fraud and waste. That has had an impact on the budgets of cities and towns.
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Dec 10, 2018
Latino USA catches up with Rodrigo Bañuelos at the Latinx in the Mathematical Sciences Conference at UCLA's Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics.
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Dec 10, 2018
To protect a developing fetus from experimental drugs or treatments that might cause birth defects, pregnant women aren't included in many clinical trials. But that limits the safety evidence, too.
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Dec 07, 2018
American foulbrood is an infectious disease that devastates honeybee hives. Scientists say they've created a vaccine for it, despite a big hurdle: Bees don't have antibodies.
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Dec 07, 2018
Concerns over a Chinese scientist's claim that he created the first gene-edited babies grow with more questions about whether it worked and the possible harm he may have inflicted on the twin girls.
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Dec 05, 2018
The fortuitous dip in emissions of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, during the past three years is over, as economies turn up. The trend in the near future looks grim, say climate scientists.
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Dec 05, 2018
A large study of Danish kids finds that childhood infections are linked with a higher risk of developing some mental illnesses. The risk is highest in the months immediately following the infection.
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Dec 04, 2018
When the world's population of Channel Island foxes started to vanish in the '90s, no one knew why. Bringing them back from near-extinction has meant unraveling a mystery that started with WWII.
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Dec 03, 2018
Canadian Twitter may truly be a nicer place. Researcher Bryor Snefjella says Canadians tend to tweet more positive words compared to their American counterparts.
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Dec 03, 2018
David Greene talks to Bryor Snefjella, a researcher at McMaster University in Ontario, about why Canadian Twitter users tend to sound more positive than their American counterparts.
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Dec 03, 2018
Protein snacks and supplements are popular, but unless you're an extreme athlete or recovering from an injury, you may already get enough protein in your diet. Here's how to tell how much you need.
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Dec 03, 2018
No longer do kids with concussions need to sit in dark rooms for days on end. For the first time in nearly a decade, the nation's pediatricians have loosened their guidance on concussion recovery.
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Nov 30, 2018
MRI scans of the brains of young football players suggest that repeated blows to the head can change the shape of nerve fibers in the corpus callosum, which connects the two halves of the brain.
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Nov 29, 2018
The Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing issues a consensus on how scientists might responsibly move forward to create gene-edited babies in the wake of a rogue scientist's claims.
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Nov 29, 2018
The Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing issues a consensus on how scientists might responsibly move forward to create gene-edited babies in the wake of a rogue scientist's claims.
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Nov 28, 2018
Attorney for the Ex-Trump campaign chairman reportedly briefed Trump's legal team on Mueller probe. Indonesian investigators report on Lion Air crash. Chinese scientist defends gene-editing research.
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Nov 28, 2018
He Jiankui, who shocked the world by asserting he had genetically edited twin girls, faced growing criticism from other researchers as he spoke at a scientific conference in Hong Kong.
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Nov 28, 2018
He Jiankui, who shocked the world by asserting he had genetically edited twin girls, faced growing criticism from other researchers as he spoke at a scientific conference in Hong Kong.
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Nov 27, 2018
In a quest to rapidly advance its scientific depth and breadth, China is recruiting scientists from around the world. Some from the U.S. say the greater funding for school and research is freeing.
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Nov 26, 2018
According to The Associated Press, a Chinese scientist says that he has helped to create the first genetically edited babies. There's no independent confirmation of his claim.
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Nov 26, 2018
A scientist says he created the first genetically edited babies using CRISPR to protect them from infection with the AIDS virus. The move has prompted immediate criticism as premature and reckless.
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Nov 25, 2018
There's a new probe nearing Mars. After Monday's tricky landing, NASA's InSight spacecraft is to deploy a sensitive seismometer and temperature probe to let scientists explore the planet's interior.
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Nov 25, 2018
There's a new probe on Mars. After Monday's tricky landing, NASA's InSight spacecraft is to deploy a sensitive seismometer and temperature probe to let scientists explore the planet's interior.
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Nov 24, 2018
The economy could take a major hit if climate change continues at its current pace, according to the latest National Climate Assessment. NPR's Michel Martin speaks with climate scientist Michael Mann.
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Nov 15, 2018
This week we focus on the behavior of the youngest members of the human race. We try to translate the mysterious language of babies. And we ask, when should we step back and just let our children be?
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Nov 15, 2018
A genetic analysis of samples taken from a large UK health database suggest that people who are more sensitive than their peers to the bitter taste of caffeine tend to drink more coffee — not less.
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Nov 14, 2018
New research finds they sustained skull injuries at about the same rate as early modern humans. "I definitely think that it's evidence these guys were not beating each other up," one expert says.
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Nov 13, 2018
A small cylinder called Le Grand K has defined the kilogram for more than a hundred years. But if a scratch ever rendered it lighter, the definition of the kilo literally shifted. Time for a change.
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Nov 13, 2018
Many schools give attendance awards to motivate students. A study found students who were awarded for perfect attendance went on to have more absences than their peers who weren't given the award.
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