There is a parlor game physics students play: Who was the greater genius? Galileo or Kepler? (Galileo.) Maxwell or Bohr? (Maxwell, but it's closer than you might think.) Hawking or Heisenberg? (A ...

Could our universe be simulated? Physicists are saying that the answer is no. Scientists have discovered that it’s impossible to model the physics of our universe on even the biggest computer. What ...

As a Harvard undergraduate, Sarah Demers—now a professor at Yale University—didn’t have the job you would imagine of a young student of particle physics. She wasn’t running code, writing equations on ...

Premature babies that are exposed to recordings of a mother's voice and heartbeat grow a larger, thicker auditory cortex. ByAllison Eck Tuesday, February 24, 2015 NOVA NextNOVA Next Few studies tried ...

An electrical engineer works on Form Energy's 2022 battery module in the company's lab in Berkeley, California. Image courtesy of Form Energy Share Weirton, West Virginia has iron in its blood. The ...

In recent years, air fryers have exploded in popularity thanks to their promise: You can make crispy, fried food with little to no oil. But what’s really happening inside those countertop machines?

(This program is no longer available for online streaming.) Apollo astronauts and engineers tell the inside story of Apollo 8, the first crewed mission to the moon. The U.S. space program suffered a ...

Receive emails about upcoming NOVA programs and related content, as well as featured reporting about current events through a science lens. To find out, we imagined a souped-up spacecraft that could ...

In a contest for the least contentious statement a person can make, “What goes up must come down” is surely a strong contender. Of the four known fundamental forces—gravity, the electromagnetic force, ...

Elephants die; we all do. In elephants and some others, it matters who has died. It’s why they are “who” animals. The crucial importance of memory, learning, and leadership in a family’s survival is ...

Colorful miniature figurines and a surfeit of plastic packaging fill the laptop screen as Chloe Warfford, 20, watches “Halloween Shopkins Unboxing,” a video by her favorite YouTuber, Bunny Meyer. For ...

What if the fundamental “stuff” of the universe isn’t matter or energy, but information? That’s the idea some theorists are pursuing as they search for ever-more elegant and concise descriptions of ...