Stories by Charles Q. Choi

A new imaging technique could help make imaginary characters appear to convincingly interact with a gamer's actual surroundings

Researchers used "light echoes" from the the doomed star to map material around the normally dormant black hole

Researchers say the technology could improve robots, self-driving cars and stock trading  

How drying forests and lightning may have turned fire from a primal threat into a life-sustaining object of reverence

Explosive interactions of sun’s and Earth’s fields endanger astronauts and power grids

Astronomers speculate that the three planets orbiting the small, cool star TRAPPIST-1 could support life

Researchers trying to divine the bizarre nature of quantum particle behavior are getting some help from software that designs counterintuitive experiments

Finding could lead to a new way of figuring out how closely related fossil species are to modern humans

Interbreeding may have influenced modern risks for depression, heart attacks, nicotine addiction, obesity and other health problems, researchers said

Discovering otherwise undetected shipwrecks scattered throughout the oceans could shed light on previously lost history 

The finding could help resolve a controversy over the continent where the ape and human lineages first evolved, according to researchers

New method uses soft sheets made of silicone rubber that have many tiny droplets of liquid metal embedded inside them

Teeth from these diminutive individuals suggest they belonged to a unique species rather than a modern human with a growth disorder, as previously suspected

DNA from Denisovans suggests they lived in Siberia for millennia and were more genetically diverse than Neandertals, but less diverse than modern humans

Researches are developing a thermal-imaging system based on ultrathin sheets of carbon atoms

MUSICA is part of a new DARPA program to explore new ways that people can interact with computers and robots

Homo naledi’s hands and feet could reveal answers about a key shift in human evolution—the move from a life of climbing trees to one spent walking on the ground

The discovery may be evidence of the oldest known case of ritual beheading in the New World

Scientists solved the mystery of how water striders accomplish amazing leaps and built a robot capable of doing the same

Origami-inspired engineering could enable flexible electronics that one day may make their way into clothing and even human bodies

Kepler-138b is the first world smaller than Earth to have its size and mass measured

New research shows that Saturn's outermost ring, discovered in 2009, is far larger than previously thought

A galaxy-scale cosmic lens brings a faraway supernova into focus

New maps pinpoint possible sites of the Red Planet's ancient seas and current underground reservoirs