Science

Rep. Jim Bridenstine was a three-term lawmaker from Oklahoma before being confirmed as NASA administrator.

Trump’s NASA nominee, Jim Bridenstine, is confirmed by the Senate on a party-line vote

Seven and a half months after being nominated to lead NASA, Mr. Bridenstine finally gets to start his new job.

1 day ago

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket transporting the TESS satellite lifts off from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on April 18, 2018.

NASA’s TESS embarks on a quest to find planets around neighboring stars

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s TESS spacecraft embarked Wednesday on a quest to find new worlds around neighboring stars that could support

2 days ago

An illustration of the early solar system, when the planet body of the Almahata Sitta meteorite may have existed.

One of the solar system’s early planets didn’t survive, but its diamonds are now on Earth

Scientists have found the first hard evidence of a protoplanet embedded in extraterrestrial diamonds that fell to Earth about 10 years ago.

3 days ago

One of the biggest contributors to the opioid crisis is the number of prescription drugs that are available in U.S. homes and taken from so many medicine cabinets.

Pa. among states to receive pouches that render opioids inert

Armstrong, Clarion, Indiana, are among the counties in Pennsylvania that are receiving 17,000 of the pouches.

3 days ago

In this undated file photo provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a blacklegged tick - also known as a deer tick - rests on a plant.

Ticks begin emerging unfazed following an extremely snowy winter

New England hikers and dog lovers may be thinking the subzero winter temperatures will put a dent in this year's tick population. Not so.

4 days ago

In this image released by SpaceX, NASA' s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) sits atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Space Launch Complex 40 on April 16, 2018, in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

NASA’s TESS spacecraft will remain on the launchpad until Wednesday as SpaceX conducts rocket tests

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite was set to take off at 3:32 p.m. Pacific time Monday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

4 days ago

Stefanie Joho, 27, in Penn Valley, Pa., last spring, was treated with Merck's Keytruda for advanced colon cancer. A new study shows that the immunotherapy drug, when combined with chemotherapy, also prolongs survival in patients with advanced lung cancer.

Immunotherapy scores a big win against lung cancer in a new study

New research suggests that many more lung cancer patients may benefit from treatments that boost the immune system.

4 days ago

This image made available by NASA shows an illustration of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.

NASA is about to step up its planet-hunting game with the launch of TESS

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite could start scanning almost all of the sky for neighboring stars as soon as Monday afternoon.

5 days ago

An aerial view of the Route 30 landslide in East Pittsburgh. Three lanes have collapsed.

Blame geology and weather: Landslides a common annoyance in Western Pennsylvania

Landslide that closed Route 30 in East Pittsburgh is just the latest inconvenience caused by permanent geological impairment

6 days ago

Carnegie Museums and Library complex in Oakland in 2015.

Another top leader leaves Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

Marcia Crawley, hired to help with museum fundraising, leaves after just a few months.

1 week ago

This June 16, 2016, file photo, taken with a fisheye lens shows bottles of alcohol during a tour of a state liquor store, in Salt Lake City.

A large international study says adults should limit alcohol to one drink a day

The study found that people who down more than seven drinks a week can expect to die sooner than those who drink less.

1 week ago

This image provided by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in April 2018 shows observed ocean temperature changes since 1870, and currents in the Atlantic Ocean.

Studies say the Atlantic Ocean’s circulation hasn’t been this sluggish in 1,000 years

The assertion suggests one of the most feared consequences of climate change is already coming to pass.

1 week ago

Willie Theison, elephant program manager at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, feeds carrots to Umasai, then 7, after giving him a bath and medication in 2013.The elephant died last year at age 11.

PETA opposes Pittsburgh Zoo application to import elephant semen from Canada

The Pittsburgh Zoo says it is trying to increase the genetic diversity of African elephants in the U.S. by importing semen from Canada.

1 week ago

Four views of the fossil finger bone from Al Wusta in Saudi Arabia. Scientists say it belonged to a member of the Homo sapiens species who lived about 88,000 years ago. The bone itself is about 3 centimeters long and less than 1 centimeter across.

A finger bone from an unexpected place and time upends the story of human migration out of Africa

The object in question is a fossilized piece of a bone, probably the middle portion of a middle finger.

1 week ago

In this Jan. 18, 2017, file photo, then-Environmental Protection Agency Administrator-designate General Scott Pruitt is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Risks are seen for Scott Pruitt in his rush to kill Obama-era regulations

Experts and White House officials say his poorly crafted legal efforts risk being struck down in court.

1 week ago

Etta Volk, a practice manager, right, and Fabiola Balmir, an embryologist, who work with the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Allegheny Health Network, talk Thursday next to liquid nitrogen-cooled freezer containers on the North Side.

Routinely freezing human eggs only began for Pittsburgh-area fertility clinics three years ago

Three Pittsburgh-area women sued a Cleveland hospital this week for destroying their frozen eggs.

1 week ago

What the inside of the orbiting hotel may look like.

A planned space hotel hopes to welcome guests by 2022 — for a cost of almost $800,000 a night

Orion Span hopes to launch Aurora Station, the “first luxury hotel in space,” by late 2021 and bring guests on board the following year.

1 week ago

Icarus, the farthest individual star ever seen. The panels at the right show the view in 2011, without Icarus visible, compared with the star's brightening in 2016.

This star is the farthest ever seen. It’s 9 billion light-years away.

The discovery of MACS J1149+2223 Lensed Star 1 — aka Icarus — required the fortuitous alignment of a massive galactic cluster.

1 week ago

A newborn neuron (upper left) in the brain of an older adult.

Scientists find signs of new brain cells in adults as old as 79

However, the researchers did uncover some differences in the brains of young people and older people.

2 weeks ago

This 2014 file photo shows the Los Angeles skyline.

A magnitude 5.3 earthquake is recorded at California’s Channel Islands

The quake was the strongest to occur in Southern California in several years. There have been no reports of significant injuries or damage.

2 weeks ago

This illustration provided by Columbia University shows the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A, located at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, surrounded by a cloud of dust and gas within which are 12 smaller black holes, and a closeup of one of the systems. The enlarged section illustrates how the 12 black holes are each accompanied by a star in a binary orbit. Gasses from the partner star are pulled into a disk around the black hole.

Astronomers say the center of the Milky Way is teeming with black holes

Scientists say they found a dozen black holes in the center of the galaxy and that thousands of others are likely at our galactic core.

2 weeks ago

In this Feb. 15, 2018, file photo, a woman holds the prescribed medical marijuana product used to treat her daughter's epilepsy after making a purchase at a medical marijuana dispensary in Butler, Pa.

Studies link legal marijuana with fewer opioid prescriptions

New studies suggest that legalizing marijuana might help the fight against opioid addiction and fatal overdoses.

2 weeks ago

This undated file illustration made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta depicts Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria, one of the germs that can evolve to resist antibiotics.

Drug-resistant ‘nightmare bacteria’ pose a growing threat, the CDC says

Bacteria with unusual resistance to antibiotics of last resort were found over 200 times in the U.S. last year in a first-of-a-kind hunt.

2 weeks ago

This undated NASA image obtained April 3, 2018, shows an illustration of NASA's planned Low Boom Flight Demonstration aircraft, otherwise known as an X-plane.

A supersonic jet with less noise? Lockheed wins a NASA award to try.

It’s a step toward developing planes that can whisk passengers around the globe much more quickly.

2 weeks ago

Jad Abumrad, host of NPR’s “RadioLab,” will appear Friday as part of the “Becoming Migrant” Carnegie Nexus series at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Oakland.

Migration is explored creatively by Carnegie Nexus

Scientists, historians, performers and artists will participate in Nexus and examine migration from all perspectives — with surprises.

2 weeks ago

This file photo shows a Landsat 8 natural-color mosaic of the ice cliff at the terminus of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica, on January 9, 2016.

An alarming 10 percent of Antarctica’s coastal glaciers are in retreat, scientists find

Their new satellite survey raises additional concerns about the massive continent’s potential contribution to rising sea levels.

2 weeks ago

An artist's rendition of the InSight lander operating on the surface of Mars.

NASA’s next mission to Mars will go deep beneath the red planet’s surface

The agency has launched many groundbreaking missions to Mars, but its next mission will do so literally.

2 weeks ago

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks at the Loews Atlanta Hotel on March 23, 2018.

Staffers in Trump’s EPA get talking points downplaying the human role in climate change

Employees crafted the email based on controversial — and scientifically unsound — statements that Administrator Scott Pruitt has made.

2 weeks ago

In this Nov. 16, 2010, file photo, visitors sit beside a model of China's Tiangong 1 space station at the 8th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai in southern China's Guangdong Province.

China’s defunct Tiangong 1 space station mostly burns up on re-entry in the central South Pacific

The China Manned Space Engineering Office said the experimental space laboratory re-entered around 8:15 a.m. Monday.

2 weeks ago

Meat is smoked on a rack at the American Indian Heritage Weekend at Meadowcroft Rockshelter, which is the site of one of the earliest established human habitations in North America.

The oldest footprints in North America are right where native historians said they should be

As soon as they dug a shoebox-size test pit, they unearthed a dark impression of a foot pressed into the light brown clay.

3 weeks ago

In this Nov. 3, 2011, file image taken from video from China's CCTV via AP Video, China's Shenzhou-8 spacecraft is docked with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space station.

China’s defunct Tiangong 1 space station continues hurtling toward Earth for re-entry

It’s expected to re-enter the atmosphere sometime in the coming days, although the risk to people on the ground is considered low.

3 weeks ago

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt talks with local media following a press conference after taking a tour of the Black Thunder coal mine outside of Wright, Wyo., on Thursday.

Trump’s EPA may be set to roll back rules requiring cars to be cleaner and more efficient

Sources say Scott Pruitt is expected to frame the initiative as eliminating a regulatory burden on automakers.

3 weeks ago

The March 27, 2018, photo shows the inside of a rubber duck after it was cut open for the photo in Nauen, Germany.

A yucky ducky? A new study reveals the bath-time toy’s dirty secret.

Scientists have the dirt on rubber ducky, and it's clear many children's favorite bath-time friend is far from squeaky clean.

3 weeks ago

Once launched into space, the James Webb Space Telescope's 18-segmented gold mirror is specially designed to capture infrared light from the first galaxies that formed in the early universe, and will help the telescope peer inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today. MUST CREDIT: Photo courtesy of NASA/Desiree Stover

The launch of NASA’s new flagship space telescope is delayed — again

Not for the first time, the agency will postpone the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope by at least a year, to May 2020.

3 weeks ago

This Nov. 16, 2017, image made with the Hubble Space Telescope shows the diffuse galaxy NGC 1052-DF2, lighter area in center. Several other galaxies can be seen through it. The unusual galaxy’s stars are speeding around with no apparent influence from dark matter, according to a study published March 28, 2018, in the journal Nature.

Baffled astronomers spy a distant galaxy that’s void of dark matter

It’s a double cosmic conundrum: Lots of stuff that was already invisible has gone missing.

3 weeks ago

Tratayenia rosalesi — which resembled a Tyrannosaurus rex — represents a new family of predatory dinosaurs known as megaraptoran theropods. The fossils were discovered in the Neuquen Province of Argentina by Argentine fossil hunter Diego Rosales and a study explaining the discovery is published in the scientific journal Cretaceous Research.

Newly discovered Patagonian dinosaur once terrorized South America and Australia

Dinosaur hunter from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History co-led the team that excavated vertebrae and hip bones of the new dinosaur.

3 weeks ago

Obituary: Gary Lincoff / World-renowned expert on mushrooms

He was a Pittsburgh native who wrote the book on mushrooms and their role in the ecosystem.

3 weeks ago

In this Jan. 24, 2018, photo, Claudia Mendez's son plays basketball with friends outside their home in Galena Park, Texas, as Mendez looks on, foreground.

Hurricane Harvey’s toxic impact is deeper than the public was told, a media investigation reveals

And questions about the long-term consequences for human health remain unanswered.

3 weeks ago

Breakfast burritos prepared by Sally Lipsky and Judi Carvell during a get together to cook and talk about the benefits of a plant-based diet at Ms. Lipsky's home in Murrysville.

Plant-based diet can reverse chronic diseases like diabetes, some cancers, mounting evidence shows

Members of Murrysville support group are using a whole-food plant-based diet to defeat cancer, diabetes, and other chronic conditions.

3 weeks ago

Wolf again calls on legislators to create independent commission to draw electoral maps

HARRISBURG — A week after two courts decided not to intervene in a challenge to Pennsylvania’s redrawn congressional district boundaries,

3 weeks ago

An artist's conception of Scholz's star and its brown dwarf companion during its flyby of the solar system 70,000 years ago.

An alien star sideswiped our solar system and sent comets reeling, scientists say

Even though Scholz’s star is just 20 light-years from Earth it appeared to move incredibly slowly across the night sky.

3 weeks ago

In this file photo, an operator checks a pipeline for gas leaks in Sabine Pass, Texas, on Sept. 10, 2014.

Engineers compete to detect methane leaks — a powerful climate pollutant

Finding methane leaks has been expensive. But the cost of not finding them might be even higher.

3 weeks ago

In this March 6, 2018, file photo, "Mad" Mike Hughes reacts after the decision to scrub another launch attempt of his rocket near Amboy, Calif.

A self-taught rocket scientist who believes the Earth is flat blasts off into the California sky

“Mad” Mike Hughes propelled himself about 1,875 feet into the air before a hard-landing in the Mojave Desert that left him injured.

3 weeks ago

In this March 9, 2018, photo provided by the U.S. Navy, the aurora borealis displays above Ice Camp Skate in the Beaufort Sea during Ice Exercise 2018.

Arctic sea ice missed a record low this winter. Barely.

The maximum extent of Arctic sea ice cover this winter was the second-lowest since satellite record-keeping began, researchers said Friday.

3 weeks ago

In this March 2, 2018, file photo, keeper Zachariah Mutai attends to Fatu, one of only two female northern white rhinos left in the world, in the pen where she is kept for observation, at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia county in Kenya.

New United Nations reports see a lonelier planet with fewer plants and animals

WASHINGTON — Earth is losing plants, animals and clean water at a dramatic rate, according to four new United Nations scientific reports

3 weeks ago

The Atacama skeleton, or Ata, named after the Chilean desert where the remains were found, has 10 pairs of ribs.

A tiny skeleton found in Chile might look like an alien, but her genes tell a different story

Everybody “is born with mutations,” said Stanford University geneticist Garry Nolan. “This person just happened to roll snake eyes.”

3 weeks ago

A sampling of plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Plastic within the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is ‘increasing exponentially,’ scientists find

Seventy-nine thousand tons of plastic debris, in the form of 1.8 trillion pieces, now occupy an area three times the size of France.

3 weeks ago

NSBE National Chair Matthew C. Nelson speaks at a press conference at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center Downtown on Thursday morning.

12,000 black engineers are in Pittsburgh to create diversity in technical careers

The organization is focused on helping to graduate 10,000 black engineers annually by 2025.

4 weeks ago

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