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Cooperation confounds us: Humans are the only members of the animal kingdom to display this tendency to the extent that we do, and it’s an expensive endeavor with no guarantee of reciprocal rewards. While we continue to look for answers about how and why cooperation may have emerged in human social and cultural evolution, we are beginning to trace the developmental roots of prosocial behaviors. A recent PLoS paper presents evidence that children as young as 15 months old may have a rudimentary sense of fairness

Building a magnetic product is never a one-shot deal.

The moment that started martha mcclintock’s scientific career was a whim of youth. Even, she recalls, a ridiculous moment. It is summer, 1968, and she is a Wellesley College student attending a workshop at the Jackson Laboratory in Maine.

1 How Did Life Begin? The moment when the first living beings arose from inanimate matter almost four billion years ago is still shrouded in mystery. How did relatively simple molecules in the primordial broth give rise to more and more complex compounds

The popular idea that chemistry is now conceptually understood and that all we have to do is use it is false. Sure, most of the products we use in our daily lives were made possible by modern chemistry. But producing useful compounds is far from all chemists do.

For years, ripples at the surface of the Dead Sea hinted there was something mysterious going on beneath its salt-laden waters. But in a lake where accidentally swallowing the water while diving could lead to near-instant asphyxiation, no one was in a hurry to find out what it might be. This year, some intrepid divers changed that, stumbling onto a geological and biological treasure and capturing it on video

Like others, I learned of Jobs’ passing on an Apple device. S and I were just on our way out the door to pick up dinner when I hit the Facebook app on my iPhone.

I owe this 60-Second Earth gig to Steve Jobs. Without the iPod there's no podcast. But our collective lust for iPod-like gadgets has some outsized impacts on the planet

MINE! That word appears early in life. Toddlers have an idea of ownership. They also have an idea of what can be owned, and what can’t.

A few years ago the renowned chef Ferran Adri

At first glance the mammoth screen running down a former parking ramp at Lincoln Center looks like something on loan from Times Square, about a dozen blocks to the south.

By Meredith Wadman of Nature magazine The recent finding that women in seven sub-Saharan Africa countries are nearly twice as likely to acquire HIV if they use a popular, long-acting injectable contraceptive, has incensed AIDS researchers. [More]

By Meredith Wadman of Nature magazine The recent finding that women in seven sub-Saharan Africa countries are nearly twice as likely to acquire HIV if they use a popular, long-acting injectable contraceptive, has incensed AIDS researchers. [More]

PCR--the polymerase chain reaction--is a crucial tool. The DNA amplification technique is used in genome sequencing, forensics and the diagnosis of various diseases.

Ada Lovelace Day allows us an opportunity to highlight the work of women in science.