What would convince you that aliens existed? The question came up recently at a conference on astrobiology, held at Stanford University in California.

Back on 24 January 2017, Fiona the hippo was born 6 weeks early at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Everybody loves a good optical illusion - and this recently discovered perception trick has us questioning how we see the world around us.

Japan announced Wednesday that it is withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission and will resume commercial whale hunting next year, sparking swift condemnation from other governments and conservation groups.

According to one of the astronauts aboard NASA's 1968 Apollo 8 mission, it would be "stupid" and "almost ridiculous" to pursue a crewed mission to Mars.

In a little over four weeks, the Moon will turn a shade of rust and loom larger in the sky than usual in a relatively rare astronomical event. 

As the scale and impacts of climate change become increasingly alarming, meat is a popular target for action. Advocates urge the public to eat less meat to save the environment. Some activists have called for taxing meat to reduce consumption of it

You can add river erosion to the list of geological triggers capable of setting off an earthquake, according to new research: and it could help explain the reason why so many earthquakes occur far away from the edges of tectonic plates.

There are usually plenty of food leftovers from Christmas dinner, often enough to last for days. But food spoils – some of it faster than others.

Next time you're feeling down, you beautiful thing, just remember – you're made of stardust. Of course, so are faecal bacteria. And serial killers. Not to mention the food you hate eating, rust, arsenic... but even so, it's amazing to think that

Above our heads, something is not right. Earth's magnetic field is in a state of dramatic weakening – and according to mind-boggling research from earlier this year, this phenomenal disruption is part of a pattern lasting for over 1,000 years.

American explorer Colin O'Brady became the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided on December 26, when he reached the Ross Ice Shelf.

After months of fruitless searching, one of the most endangered birds on the planet has finally been spotted once more.

Start a bullet journal? Finally quit smoking? Be nicer to others? Whatever you've decided to achieve next year, you know all too well that you're probably going to fail, and that list of beautiful, aspirational goals is staying unfulfilled. Sorry.

Each year the London-based data science company Altmetric releases a ranking of the 100 most popular research articles of the past 12 months - based on their analysis of "online activity around scholarly literature".

Replication is nature's greatest magic trick. Watch closely, and before your very eyes you'll see a single cell blur into two virtually identical copies. Presto.

Marsel van Oosten slipped and stumbled over logs, struggling to lug his camera gear through the verdant mountain forests of China.

One minute, you're chilling on a mountain. The next you're being dwarfed by the biggest Moon you've ever seen - one that seems to be coming right down to rest on Earth's surface.

The fall from grace wasn't exactly swift, but it was stunning. Among stem cell researchers, Piero Anversa's work trying to regrow the human heart in the 1990s and 2000s was legendary.

Evolution is a fascinating field but can be rife with misunderstanding. One misconception is that evolution has some innate sense of direction or purpose.

If there's one thing that we know from history, it's that a deadly new disease will arise and spread around the globe.