400 years ago, Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter. We discover water from 11 billion years ago, volcanoes at Titan, a moon of Saturn, and good reasons to shun light pollution.

Oils in spent coffee grounds are easily converted into biodiesel — a renewable source of transportation energy. Bottoms up for CofFuel?

Could the stockpile of grant applications at the National Institutes of Health become an effective economic stimulus? People get jobs. Inventions get invented. Sound good to you?

Did the arrival of 4,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons of space junk start the formation of organic molecules roughly 4 billion years ago? “Could be,” says a new study from Japan…

As the United Nations gets set for (another!) pow-wow on global warming, policy wonks are focusing on two mechanisms to reduce carbon pollution. Which gets more control at a lower price: carbon tax or carbon cap-and-trade?

Specialization may work in factories, but it does not make ant colonies more efficient. As the conventional wisdom about social insects goes topsy-turvy, what’s an ecologist to think?

Hungry: Is that your “food clock” ringing? Why does a fruitfly need to smell? How does bitter taste to you? And could eating MSG make you fat?

Each hour, the ocean dissolves 1 million tons of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuel. As the water grows more acidic, sound travels further. What will happen to marine mammals, which rely on an exquisite sense of hearing?

Decay is part of life, and death. When garbage decays in a landfill, or manure decays in a tank, the result is methane. Is this natural gas a problem — or an opportunity?

New study finds that holding a warm cup of coffee for a few seconds can make us see other people as warmer, more outgoing. How come?