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Stories
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How a uniquely human genetic tweak changed the voices of mice
A new study shows that giving mice the human version of a gene changes their squeak, suggesting some of the genetic underpinnings of language.
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Is Trump the president who will truly set a course for Mars?
Proponents of going to Mars see peril and opportunity in Elon Musk's close relationship with Trump. Experts say just getting Americans back to the moon in the near future will be challenging enough.
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The moon's grand canyons were carved in the blink of an eye
The Earth's Grand Canyon took millions of years to carve, but the moon's grand canyons took about ten minutes.
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These bonobos know what you don't know
A new study shows that bonobos seem to know a little bit about what's going on in a human companion's mind, and will try to help.
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Your ears can't prick up, but your ear muscles sure try
Humans actually have vestigial muscles that activate when listening closely to something, even though people lost the ability to really move their ears about 25 million years ago.
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A new way to see what was for dinner 3 million years ago
Analyzing the chemistry of some ancient teeth has revealed what human ancestors were eating around 3 million years ago.
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James Webb Space Telescope's 'little red dots' come into focus
A cosmic object spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope has flummoxed astronomers. Now, a research team has studied hundreds of these "little red dots" and found clues about their identity.
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NASA hedges its bets on costly Mars rock mission
NASA has decided it's going to pursue parallel missions to attempt to retrieve samples of rock on Mars collected by rovers.
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Scientists have learned secrets of Australia's marsupial mole
Researchers have probed the genetics of one of Australia's most elusive animals, the marsupial mole.
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NASA hedges its bets on costly Mars rock mission
NASA has announced it is moving forward with several plans to return rock samples from Mars.