Not all solar systems are as tidy as ours, but a new discovery means we're not quite so alone anymore.

Crop insurance helps ease the pain for the agricultural sector -- but increases it for everyone else

Here's how Sally Ride knew she was special: The day she was assigned to her first space flight, she was summoned to meet with Chris Kraft. Kraft was the soon-to-retire director of the Manned Spaceflight Center in Houston

A synthetic version of the common critter could be a boon to human health

Galaxies are supposed to out clumpy and, well, kind of ugly. But a new find changes all that.

A familiar party game involving cornstarch, water and a wading pool is explained at last

Blackouts will become more common unless we build a system that can bend but not break

The man who sequenced the genome and invented a bacterium tackles the ultimate question

The man who cracked the human genome and invented his own bacterium, gives an historic talk in an historic place

They're out there -- perhaps a lot of them -- and now there's a way to find them

Thousands of scientists from dozens of countries helped find the Higgs boson, but these three took the lead

A shrouded star suddenly turns clear. Are baby planets involved?

A blistering summer is at last changing some minds -- but the story remains complicated

Black holes once came only in tall and venti; not there's a grande in the middle

An elementary particle that is the cornerstone of of physics has at last been confirmed

An announcement in Geneva could confirm a century's worth of physics -- or turn it on its head

The mayor's bike-share plan should get more riders out there -- but that can spell trouble

A single gene that codes for color and general loveliness also codes for blah

One of the solar system's most complex moons has a warm and watery heart

A disaster at a German music festival was the result of bad planning, bad luck -- and fluid dynamics

Expectations were extremely modest for the Rio+20 Earth Summit that ended last week -- and the best thing that might be said about the conference is that it managed to clear that low bar

Some of the universe's most brilliant objects get by on a surprisingly spartan diet

An environmental report card

Even as the world burns, the leaders of the great nations dither -- and that hurts us all

Nanoparticles in lunar soil may explain its behavior -- offering help for future colonists

Saturn's biggest and most complex moon has a some decidedly Earth-like features

The Kepler space telescope once again expands the population of planets that could be home to life

It's not the fact that the global environment and the climate are changing that so worries many scientists. It's the rate of change

The second space age, unlike the first one, is being driven by the private sector

An improbable set of calculations help NASA determine if Earth will get clobbered by a rogue rock

A bill passed by the Brazilian Congress threatens a decade of environmental progress

A surprise gift from the intelligence community will mean two new eyes on space

A successful mission to the International Space Station ends with an Apollo-like homecoming

A new study released by the IEA this week found that "golden rules" of regulation are needed to usher in the golden age of gas

Many of the fruits and vegetables you eat come from a region that, before long could be too parched to grow anything

A major triumph in low-Earth orbit is a big boost for NASA--and the private sector

When it comes to complex medical decisions, cold hard statistics may hold little sway over patients in the face of a single, compelling anecdote

Can a privately run space company step in where NASA left off by offering cheap cargo flights to the International Space Station -- and eventually taking tourists to space?

As John Edwards petitions for yet another postponement of his campaign-finance trial, a look at why the human brain recoils at the former pretty boy of politics

The act of feeding 7 billion plus human beings already puts more stress on the planet than any other single activity, so we're going to need to figure out a way to produce more food without further damaging the environment

The massive vehicle assembly building gets a much-needed makeover

New findings from the Dawn spacecraft reveal the complexity -- and the beauty -- of the Asteroid Vesta

Are we alone in the Universe? According to TIME senior science editor, Jeffrey Kluger, recent discoveries suggest we're not.

A 1,200-year-old-find provides more insight into some of the greatest astronomers who ever lived

The sun and the planets move through space slower than was once thought -- and that changes everything

New analysis of a Canadian meteorite reveals space organics at work

Rep. Anthony Weiner's "Tweet cheating" has got commentators falling over themselves to condemn him by pointing out the virtues of his wife, Huma Abedin

Random changes in genes, rather than changes handed down from parents, may be responsible for some cases of autism

The trial of Casey Anthony, the pretty, young Florida mom whose daughter vanished three summers ago, has mesmerized millions

I'm a famous doctor. I give advice to millions of people. But it turns out I'm a lousy patient