The Air Force colonel was among the first group selected by NASA to train for the space shuttle program. He went on to fly four missions, two as commander.
Biologists have discovered what may be the largest unexplored ecosystem on earth, and it's all hidden under the Antarctic ice sheet. NPR's Scott Simon talks to the lead scientist, Brent Christner.
One of the worst byproducts of our industrial society is air pollution. It's a global problem that humans have yet to get under control. One scientist thinks we might not be alone, though. Alien civilizations may be polluting their worlds, and that pollution might be one way to detect them.
Nobody knew how people in Southern California were getting infected with the life-threatening fungus C. gattii. A 13-year-old helped figure out the source: three types of trees.
Looking for extraterrestrial smog may be a good way to search for alien intelligence, according to a Harvard researcher.
Even just the word Ebola is kind of terrifying. Why? Hollywood has a lot to do with it. But Ebola outbreaks also have all the ingredients for what one psychologist calls the "dread factor."
Look up at the night sky and ask, "Anybody there?" Then consider this answer (from the 1830s): There are 22 trillion individuals in our solar system.
Thousands of Chinook salmon are struggling to survive in the Klamath River, where waters are running dangerously low and warm. Cold reservoir water is instead going to farms in the Central Valley.
By analyzing the DNA found in 1,000-year-old mummies, scientists found evidence that sea mammals were the first to bring tuberculosis to the Americas.
A new study finds cancer affects even simple, ancient multicellular organisms — which means the disease and the deaths it causes may simply be a part of life.
A coffee entrepreneur claims his brew is different — and better — than the trendy civet poop coffee. And it starts with the idea that elephants, unlike humans or civets, are herbivores.
The EPA wants to "clarify" the scope of its oversight of water under the Clean Water Act. Big farm groups like the American Farm Bureau Federation call this a power grab that would place every ditch and mud puddle under federal regulation, forcing farmers to get permits for small trenches around the farm.
Long summer days in Alaska help cabbages, turnips and other vegetables grow to gargantuan sizes. These "giants" are celebrated at the annual state fair, which kicks off on Thursday.
There's a link between how children draw at age 4 and how well they perform on intelligence tests at age 14, researchers say.
Suppose two Chinese parents get on an Australian airplane and, while flying over U.S. territory, they have a baby on the plane. Can that baby be an American citizen?
The type of Ebola erupting in West Africa is closely related to one found 2,500 miles away — the distance between Boston and San Francisco. How did the virus spread so far without anyone noticing?
Across the U.S., jails hold many more people with serious mental illness than state hospitals do. San Antonio is reweaving its safety net for the mentally ill — and saving $10 million annually.
Using a new technology, scientists have created a vaccine for an emerging mosquito-borne virus. The vaccine was safe and produced some degree of immunity in a preliminary study.
A recent study tried to pin down just how many elephants have been killed by poachers. It's a lot — enough to eventually eliminate the species — but pinning down an exact death toll is difficult. The reason elephants are so hard to protect is the same that makes them so hard to count: They roam — exceptionally far.
What happens when you add folds to materials that are only a few atoms thick? Several scientists set out to find the answer — and discovered that these nano-wrinkles can be quite useful.