Science Selections

Scientists are confident about the link between earthquakes and oil & gas production, yet regulators are slow to react. By Anna Kuchment.

The gene that causes a devastating neurodegenerative disease may also have been critical in the evolution of our species.

Tesla's future depends on the Gigafactory, by Jordan Golson. Why Tesla's home battery should terrify utilities, by Josh Dzieza.

Efforts to explain a strange cold spot in the cosmos led to the discovery of something even odder: a vast area with very little matter.

Farmland is being ruined by salty water. Rice and fruits, genetically modified to survive salt, could feed millions. By Mark Harris.

Every year thousands of exploding stars appear in bizarre forms. Astronomers want to know what makes them go boom. By Daniel Kasen.

To help these cuddlies survive, we must understand the biology of their death. By Garret Suen, Kimberly Dill-McFarland, & Tommy Leung

Shooting zombies and repelling aliens can lead to lasting improvement in mental skills. By Daphne Bavelier and C. Shawn Green.

If we're not careful, we could find ourselves at odds with intelligent machines whose objectives conflict with our own. By Stuart Russell.

Tesla's real problem isn't that its cars are expensive. It's that they're unreliable. By Timothy B. Lee with Edward Niedermeyer.

About 50 million in the U.S. suffer from it. Very little research is done and doctors lack the skill to treat it. By Robert Caudle.

If we saw science as a human construction, science and our understanding of it would be better off. By Julia Belluz and Steven Hoffman

Scientists are trying to make quantum computers a reality by connecting many small networks together into one large whole.

Simulating Evolution: In Evolutionary Science, how close do computer models come to reality? By Christoph Adami.

Where did the Indo-European language family originate? New evidence heightens the scientific disagreements. By Michael Balter

To fight the Zika virus, let's genetically modify mosquitoes - the old-fashioned way. By Jeffrey Powell.

Drivers make suboptimal routing decisions, leading to traffic jams, when traveling around town. By Marta Gonzalez and Antonio Lima

An astonishing trove of fossils has scientists, and the media, in a tizzy over our origins. By Kate Wong.

Leap Day: Fixing the Faults in Our Stars. All you ever wanted to know about leaps. By James Hetrick.

An internal plumbing system rids the brain of toxic wastes during sleep. By Maiken Nedergaard and Steven A. Goldman.