The microbiome isn’t what it used to be in many parts of the world. The shift may be affecting the well-being of people in industrialized countries.

Ms. Pillay has served as a judge in her native South Africa and on international courts investigating war crimes. She led a U.N. panel that determined that Israel had committed genocide against Palest...

Archaeologists are scouring mountain passes as artifacts from a bygone world all but tumble out of Switzerland’s shrinking ice.

We asked 100 scientists about unsolved problems in their fields. They sent back provocations — on the origins of life, the possibilities for human progress and much more.

The complications behind Tennessee’s failed execution of Christa Pike aren’t uncommon — and show how easily another botched execution could occur, even as others are planned soon in Texas and Florida.

The Nobel Committee recognized them for solving a century-old mystery about how molecules with mirror images can emerge in nature.

The Nobel Committee praised his “vision and scientific leadership” at a research project at the South Pole.

The government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more than 500 Americans who were held against their will during this Trump administrati...

The mostly Democratic-led states say that the E.P.A. acted unlawfully when it erased Biden-era limits on carbon dioxide from coal- and gas-fired plants.

Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel were recognized for their work on light-gated ion channels and optogenetics, a technique that uses tiny lights to activate neurons in the brain.

The move, affecting about one-fifth of the National Science Foundation’s primary research budget, is the latest sign of how the White House is asserting more control over grants.

We’re starting to learn more about how the technology can change us.

Our reporting has shown how easily people — some with questionable backgrounds — have founded their own private schools in barns, strip malls and other places. That led us to an experiment: If the hur...

An enormous pulse of wave energy will soon reach Southern California and continue north, raising sea levels by half a foot and increasing threats from swells and tides.

Beta Pictoris b appears to have an aurora caused by a powerful magnetic field. If confirmed, it would be the first such field known outside our solar system.

Scientists have found a human gene lurking in a virus that causes skin infections. It may be using our own DNA to infect us.

Beta Pictoris b appears to have an aurora caused by a powerful magnetic field. If confirmed, it would be the first such field known outside our solar system.

The first fall runs of chinook salmon since the project in California and Oregon was completed have surpassed researchers’ expectations.

Artificial intelligence workers may have leverage to make the world safer.

Some viruses appear to vanish when outbreaks dissipate, only to emerge again. Scientists don’t always know which animals they lurk in — and how to stop them from spilling back over.

Scientists at the company announced their first finding: a group of enzymes whose function is unknown.

His “The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook” made a case for insects as food, while his boisterous cooking demonstrations brought tarantulas and crickets to TV.

At a whopping 728 feet wide, the newfound basin hints at the risks that impact events may pose to planned human outposts.

Annie Dillard died this week. But her voice — wild and holy and hilarious — continues to live in my head, my soul and, somehow, my dog.

They scanned the pattern of microscopic imperfections on an ancient limestone slab, and used A.I. to figure out how a game might have been played.

Nearly 1,000 readers sent us their questions about artificial intelligence, its potential and its potential risks.

A new book describes how cutting-edge genomics techniques yielded “extraordinary proof” that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings.

“Alignment” is the science of teaching A.I. to do what is in line with human preferences, ethics and judgment. But, at times, the systems have gone rogue.

The discovery of “hypersoft” X-ray beacons could help solve some mysteries about the universe.

The species, called a tilcayo, is smaller than a house cat and lives in the cloud forests of the Andes Mountains in Bolivia.

The winners of this year’s Nikon Small World in Motion competition showcase the wiggly, feathery, undulating beauty of invisible life.

The Times has witnessed the country’s transformation. It will keep its eyes open.

Her Thoreau-like account of journeys in the woods, published when she was 28, was the first of many ruminations on life and nature, good and evil.

With work that breathed the spirit of the 1960s, he became fabulously wealthy from licensing his paintings and posters in all their euphoric Day-Glo glory.

A researcher surveying a San Mateo County creek stumbled upon a preserved Pacific mastodon molar estimated to be at least 10,000 years old.

Scientists simulated what happens when the pipes and tunnels that divert rainwater fail. In one scenario, 30 percent of local residents couldn’t reach an E.R.

Birds are drawn to lights, and more than a billion die each year after crashing into buildings, experts said.

Thousands of planets have been discovered beyond our solar system, offering clues to where life might thrive and whether Earth is truly unique.

New estimates using the planet’s surface wrinkles show that our smallest planet is growing even smaller, at a faster clip than expected.

A spate of robberies, many in small towns, has raised questions about how to secure the country’s treasures.

Survivors tell the stories of the people and places buried under the mud after a disaster in Nepal.

Tribes and scientists are mounting an urgent trapping effort to keep European green crabs from devastating a corner of Puget Sound.

A hunter-gatherer who lived in Indonesia as early as 25,000 years ago may have regularly sucked on betel nuts to release their psychoactive properties.

A modicum of self-restraint is the new black.

With prompt and appropriate medical care, experts say, people shouldn’t die from an ectopic pregnancy. Women in Texas and Oklahoma have sued over delays in care, which, coupled with our new analysis, ...

Higher ed is being strangled by absurd and costly rules. What message is that sending to students?

In an era of heavy rain, a transit system with 47,000 openings is bound to leak.

Maybe consuming meaningless content is the only way to be free online.

The proposed rule could strip federal protections from most U.S. wetlands, many of which help feed drinking water systems.

Meet the earliest known insects. Shaking hands with them will take a while.