Does infinity really exist, or is it just part of the fabric of our imaginations?

A new experiment buried deep underground in a South Dakota mine aims to detect rare particle decays that could explain the mystery of antimatter.

A quantum computer chip can process information several orders of magnitude faster than an ordinary silicon computer chip.

If science gives people superpowers, will they use them for good or evil?

Astronomers are excited about a sungrazing comet discovered late in 2012. Around the time of its perihelion – or closest approach to the sun – on November 28, 2013, it could become a striking object visible to the eye alone even in broad daylight. This comet is called C/2012 S1 (ISON) by astronomers.

Just as light does, ants traveling through different materials follow the fastest path, not the shortest one.

Surgical robots could make some types of surgery safer and more effective, but proving that the software controlling these machines works as intended is problematic. Researchers have demonstrated that methods for reliably detecting software bugs and ultimately verifying software safety can be applied successfully to this breed of robot.

Lake Erie is under attack from noxious algae blooms, and the problem only looks likely to get worse if something isn't done to reverse the trend, new research suggests.

That is the conclusion of research which suggests the 180km-wide Chicxulub crater in Mexico was carved out by a smaller object than previously thought.

Imagine that the chips in your smart phone or computer could repair and defend themselves on the fly, recovering in microseconds from problems ranging from less-than-ideal battery power to total transistor failure. It might sound like the stuff of science fiction, but a team of engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), for the first time ever, has developed just such self-healing integrated chips.

Brown University researchers are taking a closer look at the anatomy of bat wings and how they can be used to inspire new possibilities for small aircraft.

We’re getting better at spotting potentially dangerous objects, but this one was too small.

The largest prime number yet has been discovered — and it's 17,425,170 digits long. The new prime number crushes the last one discovered in 2008, which was a paltry 12,978,189 digits long.

The feeling of abundance does not necessarily stem from what we own, but how we look at what we have in our lives. We are creatures that want, that delight in acquisition, but it’s not always the book you really want.

They may not be replacing doctors and nurses just yet, but robots could be providing bedside care in hospitals across the United States sooner than you think.

The science fiction vision of stars flashing by as streaks when spaceships travel faster than light isn't what the scene would actually look like, a team of physics students says.

The kilogram may need to go on a diet. The international standard, a cylinder-shaped hunk of metal that defines the fundamental unit of mass, has gained tens of micrograms in weight from surface contamination, according to a new study.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and their industry partner Solar Junction, have just set the bar even higher in the race for ultra-high-effiency photovoltaic (PV) cells by achieving another world record of 44% efficiency.

Unless you’ve buried your head in the sand—which, to be honest, would be a better use of your time—you’ve heard the world is coming to an end this Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. No, it isn’t.

The only downside, of course, is that your self-lit holiday centerpiece would be actually be a Frankenstein tree.

Arctic glaciers retreated at record levels in 2012, while summer snow melted in the region much more rapidly than it has in the past, according to a new report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).

The new kind of matter is called color-glass condensate, and is a liquid like wave of gluons, which are elementary particles related to the strong force that sticks quarks together inside protons and neutrons (hence they are like "glue").

Haptic technology is letting us get fresh with our devices. (But no, it’s not ready for porn yet.)

Quantum physics is the science of the very small. But physicists are making it bigger, setting records for the size and energies of objects they can get to exhibit quantum effects.

Attributing a certain event to climate change is always tricky territory, so much so that some scientists say it is too early to make any judgments.

Scientists have found the hottest temperature the planet has ever experienced may have helped cause the greatest die-off in history at the end of the Permian Era some 250 million years ago.

There is no solid scientific proof to pair with the centuries of anecdotes that prop up the hiccup scare cure, but there are a number of reasons that the home remedy's value might go beyond the placebo effect.

Imagine not having to change a lightbulb for the next 40 years, as well as being able to cut your electricity costs for lighting in your house by 90%. Now imagine that when you actually do need to change a lightbulb, you only need to replace a tiny LED inside the lightbulb, with virtually nothing to discard or recycle.

Physicists say they have three big questions needing answers.

Opponents of genetically modified crops have jumped on the results of a new study, which claims to have linked the consumption of GM maize with the development of tumors in rats -- despite widespread criticism of the research from independent scientists around the world.

Recent experiments led by plasma physicist Ryan McBride show that it's possible to reach a "break even" point, where the energy that goes into running a fusion reactor is equal to energy produced. That's a big step toward an alternative energy that produces emission-free energy without the nuclear waste.

Organic farming may get a little high-tech help in the future. A new robot, still in development, is now able to roll along the rows in fields, spot weeds, and kill weeds with an injection of fertilizer.

A Japanese mathematician claims to have the proof for the ABC conjecture, a statement about the relationship between prime numbers that has been called the most important unsolved problem in number theory.

The bizarre mating behavior of hermaphroditic sea slugs — which involves stabbing penile appendages and hook-like penis spines — may have hidden benefits despite its wear on the body, new research finds.

Rainbows come in many shapes and forms.

Next time the family dog bounds out of the nearest body of water and shakes itself off right beside you, don't get irritated: You're witnessing a feat of evolution that engineers can only dream of re-creating.

From the magnetic compasses of migratory geese and dolphin sonar to beaver dams and ant agriculture, most of the ingenious stuff we humans have invented arose millions of years earlier in nature, via the slow-but-steady process of evolution. Why not the wheel?

Many animals, including seals, bats, pigs, birds, even whales can get a type of flu, known as Influenza A, and these viruses can make their way into the human population.

Greenland ice, it seems, can vanish in a flash, with new satellite images showing that over just a few days this month nearly all of the veneer of surface ice atop the island's massive ice sheet had thawed.

The odd jellyfish mimic, dubbed a "Medusoid" by its creators, is more than a curiosity. It's a natural biological pump, just like the human heart.

A new analysis of 2,000 years of tree ring data has quickly made climate change deniers' list of greatest hits to the theory of manmade global warming.

Even when allowed to ripen on the vine and shipped with great care, modern tomatoes are still insipid. Researchers have been looking into this tomato matter, and have recently uncovered a genetic cause for the fruit’s tedium.

Dogs yawns more often when they were listening to their owner's yawn.

Google is making prototypes of its futuristic, Internet-connected glasses available for people to test out.

The study claims that for every doubling of the size of the turbine, “global warming potential per kWh (is) reduced by 14%.”