Broken windows in Prypiat, Chernobyl

Chernobyl: Can Wildlife Return After the Blast?

For 30 years we have assumed that no life would return to Chernobyl after the nuclear disaster there. We may be wrong.
This is an artist’s impression of a Kuiper Belt object (KBO), located on the outer rim of our solar system.

Next stop for the New Horizons Spacecraft: The Kuiper Belt

New Horizons, the NASA probe deployed to visit Pluto, has begun a new mission: visit the Kuiper belt, a region beyond the orbit of Neptune.
The Brain That Wouldn't Die - 1962 - Joseph Green

Head Transplants: A History

The first human head transplant is scheduled for 2017. But the possibility of transplants has transfixed scientists for most of the last century.
Sweden-Nobel prize-China-Tu Youyou
Xinhua via Getty Images

Why Hasn’t China Won a Nobel in Science Until Now?

Despite a long tradition of scientific inquiry and study, no Chinese scientist has won the coveted Nobel Prize. Until now. We try to understand why.
Suburban Lawn

Your Green Lawn is Harming the Environment

Americans go to desperate measures to keep their lawns manicured and green. But is it worth the environmental cost?
Beth Stevens

Read MacArthur “Genius” Grant Winner Beth Stevens’ Work on JSTOR

Beth Stevens was awarded the heralded "genius" grant for her work on microglia, the specialized nervous system cells.
Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Caption: Alfred McEwen

The Canals of Mars

We now know there's liquid water on Mars, according to NASA. But at the turn of the 20th century, we believed something else: that Mars had canals.
A dead fish in sand

We’re Down to Half the Fish in the Sea

Since the 1970s, half of the world's fish population has disappeared. We trace the history of this ecological disaster.
Row of tall flowering plants covered with screens

Public Policy at the Limits of Science

Stefan Böschen and Kevin C. Elliot discuss how science is often misused by policy-makers, adversely affecting public awareness and disciplinary credibility.
A high border fence

The Ecological Impact of a Border Wall

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has called for a large border wall. We look at the damage a wall would create for the surrounding ecology.