News Feature

Brazil has waged a successful war on tropical deforestation, and other countries are trying to follow its lead. But victory remains fragile.

Transfusions are one of the most overused treatments in modern medicine, at a cost of billions of dollars. Researchers are working out how to cut back.

US funding agencies are turning to a Silicon Valley entrepreneur to focus fledgling biomedical companies on success — even when that means making a scientific course correction.

Short-sightedness is reaching epidemic proportions. Some scientists think they have found a reason why.

Daniel Pauly is sounding the alarm over global fish harvests, but others think he is making too much noise.

The world is full of bloody conflicts that can drag on for decades. Some researchers are trying to find resolutions through complexity science.

Momentum is building to establish a new geological epoch that recognizes humanity's impact on the planet. But there is fierce debate behind the scenes.

One of the most devastating consequences of the Ebola outbreak will be its impact on maternal health.

Women are under-represented in physical sciences and in science in the developing world. Meet three who beat both sets of odds.

Leslie and Eliot Young have spent their lives studying Pluto. Now they are gearing up for the biggest event of their careers.

Brain-scanning techniques promise to give an objective measure of whether someone is in pain, but researchers question whether they are reliable enough for the courtroom.

The idea of two sexes is simplistic. Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum than that.

The billions of specimens in natural-history museums are becoming more useful for tracking Earth's shrinking biodiversity. But the collections also face grave threats.

Scientists are pushing the properties of light to new extremes. A special issue explores these frontiers.

Using techniques adapted from astronomy, physicists are finding ways to see through opaque materials such as living tissue.

Shape it, squeeze it, energize it or tie it into knots. Scientists are taking light to new extremes.

Automation is one of the hottest topics in transportation research and could yield completely driverless cars in less than a decade.

Babies are increasingly surviving premature birth — but researchers are only beginning to understand the lasting consequences for their mental development.

Research relies on unsung heroes working behind the scenes — and some of them have rather unusual jobs.

By splicing animals together, scientists have shown that young blood rejuvenates old tissues. Now, they are testing whether it works for humans.