Picture a scientist. Seriously, right now. I'm not going to discuss the nature of the person that you have in your mind (although I am going to guess: White? Male? Crazy hair? That's not surprising, but another topic entirely).

An absolutely gargantuan black hole 800 million times the mass of the Sun has been discovered 13 billion light-years away, and it's sent the way we think about the early Universe into a spin.

Birds are the modern incarnation of dinosaurs.

People tend to adapt, capable of shifting towards one idea in favor of another as more information come in.

A seven-year-old Australian boy who is missing most of his visual cortex has surprised doctors by being able to see well enough to recognise faces and play soccer - the first known case of its kind.

After 20 years of slow, careful excavation, the world's most complete skeleton of an ancient human ancestor has just been unveiled.

Chess isn't an easy game, by human standards. But for an artificial intelligence powered by a formidable, almost alien mindset, the trivial diversion can be mastered in a few spare hours.

As if experiencing a traumatic brain injury wasn't enough of a problem on its own, it turns out the consequences can have an unusual effect on a remote part of the body – the lower intestine.

While on a walk over the weekend, Pamela Wang, a resident of Kealakekua, Hawaii, found something miraculous: a 5.23-pound (2.37kg) avocado the size of her head.

Scientists are reporting what could amount to be the firmest evidence yet of genetic links to male sexual orientation, in the first published genome-wide association study (GWAS) examining the trait.

A new type of temperature-sensitive gel, which can protect a wounded eyeball and then later be removed with cold water, could be vital in saving the vision of people who get injured a long way from the nearest medical facilities.

More than 17 feet (5.2 metres) long and weighing more than 130 pounds (60 kg), with more rows of sharp teeth than you ever cared to imagine - a Burmese python has been captured and killed in the Florida Everglades.

CRISPR-Cas9 technology allows scientists to insert or remove genes by making a cut in a DNA molecule; an ability that has applications ranging from the creation of pigs with lower levels of body fat to the eradication of certain diseases.

New research has added to the growing pile of evidence that taking hormonal contraceptives increases your relative risk of developing breast cancer.

For the past few decades, something has been becoming increasingly clear: Earth constantly hums, even though we can't hear it.

Scientists have discovered a new type of bacterium, that most hardy of organisms, which can survive solely off the chemicals in air – and the discovery could change the way we think about life living on other planets.

Black Friday has come and gone, and the holidays are right around the corner - that means it's crunch time for gift shopping.

The search for extra-solar planets has turned up some very interesting discoveries.