The 1959 pilot episode, airing a decade before the first moon landing, bore what would become the series’ hallmark: narrating Cold War anxieties through a mix of science and superstition.
Last week, NASA’s Curiosity rover detected a belch of natural gas on the red planet. The gas has since dissipated, leaving only a mystery.
The powerful rocket is carrying an assortment of cargo, including a solar sail, an atomic clock and the ashes of 152 people.
It’s easy to tell an adult rooster from an adult hen. But when they’re just chicks? That requires considerable expertise.
The Curiosity mission’s scientists picked up the signal this week, and are seeking additional readings from the red planet.
The Curiosity mission’s scientists picked up the signal this week, and are seeking additional readings from the red planet.
There has been a startling number of killer whale sightings in the bay in June, normally an off-season month for whale watchers.
With a leash and a harness, any feline can safely explore the great outdoors. But owners need to be mindful of signs of stress.
A few fun facts about the many-armed creatures.
On New York’s Fire Island, the piping plover population has nearly doubled since the big storm in 2012, scientists report.
To find real solitude, you have to go out of range. But every year that’s harder to do, as America’s off-the-grid places disappear.
Seven years after scientists caught the elusive deep-sea cephalopod on video, they saw another. Then lightning struck a third time.
Work on the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea, bitterly opposed by Hawaiian activists, could start soon.
An intriguing new study found that people across the world are more inclined to give back a lost wallet if there is money inside.
Its skull sat in a museum collection for decades before new technology unlocked its genetic secrets.
A new imaging tool works more like Google Maps than a traditional microscope.
Shipworms are known for boring into wood and digesting it, but scientists found a new species with a very different diet.
The discovery illustrates how museum collections may be filled with forgotten fossils that could expand knowledge of prehistory.
The freeze front creates an unusual liquid flow on the surface of the soap bubbles, new research suggests.
Cephalopods, flies and even humans share genes needed to develop limbs, perhaps provided by a common ancestor.
Dogs have a muscle that lets them make a face to melt a human’s heart.
Scientists still define astronomical time in years, with some recent refinements.
Plant breeders are fast-tracking genetic improvements in food crops to keep pace with global warming and a growing human population.
Astronomers have announced a global contest to rename dozens of extrasolar planets. The nominees are pouring in.
These fish turn up in many surprising location, but this was one place scientists didn’t expect to find them.
To a doubting medical world, he found compelling evidence that some cancers are passed along genetically. His work was ultimately widely embraced.
She and her husband identified an antibody that triggers wheezing and rashes. Monitoring it can help prevent and remedy allergic reactions.
Swarms of insects move across continents each year. Scientists used radar to track one species and discovered a vast ecological force.
Archaeologists have identified remnants of small, round dough rings at an excavation site in Austria. But no cream cheese.
Longstanding efforts to protect the nests of loggerhead sea turtles have been paying off, emphasizing the importance of collaboration in conservation.
Residue found in tombs deep in a Central Asian mountain range suggests that strong cannabis was used in ancient burial rites.
Researchers say the flying reptiles didn’t need much parental guidance.
An installation at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden ponders the sounds made by plants.
Once wine growers find a variety that works, the study reinforces, they’ll stick with it for centuries, or even millenniums.
Asteroid mining. Gene editing. Synthetic meat. We could provide for the needs of everyone, in style. It just takes some imagination.
This scientist couple created an airborne observatory to map tropical forests. Now they’re using it to identify threatened reefs.
Yes, there is such a thing as a vampire finch.
A tweet by the president clashed with earlier statements, including his own, about a renewed focus on moon exploration.
NASA plans to open the International Space Station to commercial business, including tourism. But the tickets won’t be cheap.
Researchers developed a model that explains a peculiar pattern found in a shrub common in Japan.
Genetic analysis of ancient teeth and bones suggests Native Americans largely descend from a vanished group called the Ancient Paleo-Siberians.
Researchers say the tiny crystalline structures in the predator’s fangs could inspire strong, see-through materials.
Researchers are experimenting with a Rube Goldberg-esque mix of tactics to control hearty, nonnative swimmers that re-engineer nutrient-rich Midwest waters.
Understanding how the endangered mammals smell the world could help with their conservation, researchers say.
Before there was a Western civilization, there was Islamic civilization.
They’ve changed remarkably over millions of years, and at one point may even have been warmblooded.
If you want to keep the contents cool, better to leave the water in the ice chest if you can.
On their migrations north, famished birds stop to feast on eggs laid by horseshoe crabs. But the crabs were overfished, and conservationists say that some bird species may not recover.
Images of the Starlink constellation in orbit have rattled astronomers around the world.
The landers would be the first American spacecraft to touch down on the moon since the astronauts of Apollo 17 left in 1972.
The F.D.A. has been wary of cannabis-derived products. But it is now under pressure to help them get to market legally.
There have been 971 known cases of measles in the United States so far this year.
Chess and Go were child’s play. Now A.I. is winning at capture the flag. Will such skills translate to the real world?
Discovering the rodent’s imperviousness to a stinging chemical compound may lead to advancements in pain treatment for people.
A slab of rock and the methods used to study it could offer clues to when a behavior common in fishes first evolved.
The full power of the biggest temblors could be determined in as little as 10 to 15 seconds after they begin, a new study finds, and long before it ends.
Wednesday: Tonight, the sunset will align with the east-west numbered streets in Manhattan. Have your camera ready.
Wednesday: A rare tornado warning startled the New York region last night, sending people scurrying for shelter as thunderstorms descended.
This week could be your chance to take “the best sunset picture of the year” in New York.
Wednesday: Tonight, the sunset will align with the east-west numbered streets in Manhattan. Have your camera ready.
Before 1919, cosmology was as subjective as art history. A solar eclipse, and a patent clerk’s equations, changed everything.
Murray Gell-Mann’s discoveries illuminated the most puzzling aspects of nature, and changed science forever.
Instead of synthesizing new biochemicals from scratch, the Nobel Prize-winning chemist puts nature to the task — with astonishing results.
Marine species have developed unusual adaptations for filtering salt from the water they require.