The Latest Breaking News from the National Science Foundation

Does a Colorado designer’s belief that marriage is between one man and one woman merit an exemption to state law barring discrimination against LGBTQ+ people? On June 30, 2023, the Supreme Court decided 6-3 that the answer is yes: Requiring a conservative Christian business owner to create wedding websites for…

At what point does a craft spirit no longer qualify as craft?

Floods, wildfires, heat waves and hurricanes cause billions of dollars of property damage each year. Can federal climate scientists help the insurance industry keep up?

The Republican effort to cut spending suggests a shift in Washington thinking about how to confront Beijing's ambitions.

Wildfires exacerbated by warming temperatures and extreme drought are endangering our views of the night sky. But there may be a controversial way to help mitigate the problem.

Since the 2016 presidential election, news accounts and scientific research have illustrated how defriending, a term originally associated with dropping Facebook friends, echoes in our broader, offline social lives. And what may seem like a simple decision to cut off a difficult relationship may actually deepen divisions in society.

BALTIMORE -- On a cold morning in a Remsen Hall chemistry lab at the Johns Hopkins University, five undergraduates laughed and chatted as they mixed together amino acids and catalysts, trying to better understand the origins of life.

It’s easy to feel pessimistic when scientists around the world are warning that climate change has advanced so far, it’s now inevitable that societies will either transform themselves or be transformed. But as two of the authors of a recent international climate report, we also see reason for optimism.

For short-lived spring wildflowers such as wood anemone (Anemone quinquefolia) and Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucullaria), timing is everything. These fleeting plants, known as ephemerals, grow in temperate forests around the world, leafing out and flowering early in spring before the trees towering above them leaf out. Emerge too early, and…