Prisons have been controversial since their beginnings in the late 1700s — why do they keep failing to live up to expectations?

“Gray” infrastructure throws up walls against the coastal flooding affecting many cities. But salvation may lie in leaning in toward green controls like wetlands and mangroves — and heeding the experience of the Dutch.

PODCAST: Digging — quite literally — into our planet’s past to study its paleoclimate has shed light on bygone ice ages and hints at trouble ahead for our now-warming world

OPINION: Our behavior during Covid-19 echoes that of individuals, societies and governments during past plagues. We can and should do better.

OPINION: The placebo effect is real. So are the ethical conundrums posed by those who would exploit the latest research advances for profit.

Carnivorous plants fascinate as much now as when their gruesome diet was first discovered. Molecular biology is helping botanists trace the origins of their predatory ways.

PODCAST: The journey to solving the structures of these critically important molecules began with a chance discovery. Today, after decades of painstaking lab work and huge technological leaps, the field of protein science is exploding.

Machines that grip, grapple and maneuver will soon have their go at maintaining the fleet of small spacecraft that encircle Earth

A new vision of the skeleton as a dynamic organ that sends and receives messages suggests potential therapies for osteoporosis and other problems

In the cheeps, trills and tweets of birdsong, scientists find some parallels with human speech