Surprising Science

Under pressure to improve its search results, Google has announced a “big algorithmic improvement” that, unlike other changes, could be noticeable to its users.

The ultradense core of an exploded star contains superfluids, a strange form of superconducting matter which exhibits remarkable properties such as climbing upwards.

Except for the fear of cancer, U.S. adults most fear getting Alzheimer’s disease, but few make preparations for the onset of the disease, a survey indicates.

Scientists in the United States have found newborn mice can re-grow their own hearts. There’s no reason to believe that the same window would not exist in the human heart.

Sailors used to struggle with it but migratory sea turtles have now proved capable of sensing longitude, using almost imperceptible gradients in Earth’s magnetic field.

With the emergence of new tools that can measure a person’s biological state, computer interfaces are starting to take users’ feelings into account, helping the user to focus.

Why do virtually all men over the age of 90 develop some amount of prostate cancer whereas heart cancer is practically unheard of?

Before Watson’s Jeopardy! contest was even over, I.B.M. and Nuance, a leading maker of voice-recognition software, announced plans to put the computer to work in the health-care industry.

A new study finds that electromagnetic radiation emitted by cellphone antenna boosts brain activity. The findings may spark new concerns about the health effects of cellphone use.

Physicists talk rapturously about an equation that could reconcile the four fundamental interactions of nature. But why should you care? 

Could your blood group determine your risk of major cancers, infertility and stomach ulcers, as well as diseases such as cholera and malaria? Increasingly, research says yes.

The seeds of criminal and anti-social behaviour can be found in children as young as three, scientists say. But can we help keep them on the straight and narrow?

One in three Americans are diagnosed at some point in their lifetime with cancer, a derangement of normal cell growth in which cells grow in antisocial ways, crossing natural tissue boundaries. 

Last week in NYC, we attended the Economist’s summit on “Intelligent Infrastructure,” which covered investment issues, new technologies, scenarios for urban growth, and sociological questions about the future role of the city.

We’re fascinated by machines that can imitate humans, but also feel an existential discomfort around them. Today, the primal distinction between man and technology is blurrier than ever.

Ink-jet printing technology has inspired scientists to look for ways to build sheets of skin that could one day be used for grafts in burn victims, experts said Sunday.

M.I.T. physicist Alan Guth has suggested that new universes—known as “pocket universes”— are constantly being created, but they cannot be seen from our universe.

For poets and philosophers through the ages, the mind and heart have been fellow travelers. Now medical researchers are putting the dark bond between the two under a microscope.

An emerging field of neuroscience indicates that the endocannabinoid system may be more responsible for feelings of euphoria after exercise than endorphins.

Want to protect against the effects of Alzheimer’s? Learn another language. Recent brain research shows that bilingual people’s brains function better after developing the disease.

It is time the scientific community became proactive in challenging misuse of scientific evidence. We must make evidence accessible and explicable, says the U.K.’s chief science advisor.

Fat is not necessarily bad for dieters, says the obesity expert.

Everyone knows someone that has been touched by cancer. Over one and a half million Americans will be diagnosed with some form of cancer in 2011, and more than 560,000 […]

By studying our nearest galactic neighbor Andromeda, astrophysicists can better understand how our own Milky Way galaxy formed 10 billion years ago.

The real challenge for Internet freedom? U.S. hypocrisy. And there’s no app for that. Secretary Clinton’s speech on Internet freedom didn’t address the U.S. and Internet oppression.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is best treated with cognitive behavioural and graded exercise therapies, say British scientists writing in The Lancet. But some support groups disagree.

We’re accustomed to thinking developing economies follow in the footsteps of developed ones. The progression of mobile commerce turns that notion on its head.

IBM’s Watson computer, though a marvel of computing power, cannot answer questions that involve the common sense of a child.

With China in position to overtake the US as the world’s number one economy by 2020, keeping America inventive and productive has never been more important. 

Many studies have shown that dolphins can understand human vocabulary and syntax. The problem is that dolphins can’t respond in kind, but now biologists are starting to change that.