That's the (rather unscientific) advice to Congress from NASA chief Charles Bolden, who basically says that if a large asteroid heads towards a big US city--as it recently did in Russia--there's not much else we can do. He told them, "From the information we have, we don't know of an asteroid that will threaten the population of the United...

The National Geographic website reports that when a researcher put 84 dogs in separate rooms with food on the floor and told each dog to leave the food alone, their response varied according to whether or not the light was on. The dogs were four times as likely to steal the food--and steal it quickly--when the room was dark.

They...

Reduced production of myelin, a type of protective nerve fiber that is lost in diseases like multiple sclerosis, may also play a role in the development of mental illness. Myelin is an insulating material that wraps around the axon, the threadlike part of a nerve cell through which the cell sends impulses to other nerve cells. Depriving mice of...

Nature is the original "inventor"--Nature's designs are giving researchers ideas for new technologies that could help wounds heal, make injections less painful and provide new materials for a variety of purposes.

Velcro was inspired by the grappling hooks of burrs. Supersonic jets have structures that work like the nostrils...

More than 50,000 cremated bone fragments, of 63 individuals buried at Stonehenge, have been excavated and studied for the first time by a team of archeologists. The skeletons were discovered due to a renovation of the area around the ancient monument reveal...

Where does such perfectionism come from? It can either cripple a person, as they strive to reach unattainable goals, or it can cause them to triumph.

Psychologists blame parents who overemphasize achievement or make love conditional upon meeting certain goals. But recent research suggests that genes have a lot to do with it.

It's happened before: In 1859, sunspots erupted, causing sparks in telegraph offices that set paper on fire. Today, 150 years later, we are much MORE "wired," and sun...

The Ukraine has trained dolphins to be attack animals, ready to go after enemy swimmers, wearing knives on their noses. The Soviet Union originated this program, and turned over to Ukraine after the Cold War. The program includes training dolphins to search for underwater mines and mark them with buoys.

On the Wired.com website,...

We are receiving more and more reports from UFO hunters that they are having success. What was a rare experience ten years ago is now commonplace. But you have to take some basic steps (NOTE: ...

Early cultures separated into tribes (something many countries still do) in order to keep themselves safe. But they needed to mix with other tribes as well--in order to spread their DNA around, as well as to make friends.

In the March 17th edition of the New York Times, Jeffrey P. Kahn writes: "These lifesaving social instincts...

We know people can do it, but can PLANTS do it? This is necessary to know if we want to eventually create living space environments, in which people can spend the many years it might take to travel to distant stars and planets.

Researchers have found that changes in...

In a world where water is running short, we need to find an affordable way to remove the salt from seawater. The UN reports that about 780 million people around the world do not have access to clean drinking water.

A defense contractor may have found a way to solve this problem without building expensive desalinization plants....

Despite what's happening in Alaska and the Midwest, a recent study of centuries of weather suggests we have record warming ahead.

Researchers looking at weather patterns since the end of the last Ice Age predict that average surface temperatures will be at their...

New evidence strengthens the case that scientists have discovered a Higgs boson, or "God particle." The new particle discovered at experiments at the Large Hadron Collider last summer is looking more like a Higgs boson than ever before.

Researcher Kyle Cranmer says, "When we discovered the particle, we knew we found...