Stories by Dan Vergano

A trove of e-mails from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was released by a congressional committee on Wednesday

“Kryptos has not been solved,” said artist Jim Sanborn after releasing his parting clues to the “K4” section of his sculpture puzzle

“I have no problems flying,” says one expert about the FAA’s plan to reduce flights by 10 percent at 40 airports nationwide. “I would get on an airplane tomorrow”

Ahead of Jared Isaacman’s renomination for the position of NASA’s administrator, a dispute between him and its acting chief Sean Duffy spilled into the open, with potentially profound consequences for the U.S. space agency

“The only countries that will really learn more if [U.S. nuclear] testing resumes are Russia and, to a much greater extent, China,” says Jeffrey Lewis, an expert on the geopolitics of nuclear weaponry

Russian leader Vladimir Putin claimed his nation conducted a successful flight of a nuclear-powered cruise missile. Here’s how that missile might work

Former NASA officials warn that the U.S. looks poised to lose its self-declared race to beat China to the moon

Massive marches nationwide in the U.S. marked a turn against an increasing acceptance of political violence among protesters, report sociologists

A massive Somali meteorite containing never-before-seen-on-Earth minerals vanished into the black market, raising ethical questions about science and ownership.

A quarter of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff is gone after the Trump administration’s latest reductions in force and earlier layoffs

Texas lawmakers want to move the Smithsonian’s retired space shuttle to Houston. It’s “a vanity project that is apt to destroy a near-priceless American treasure,” one historian says

How a space rock vanished from Africa and showed up for sale across an ocean

Former CDC chief Susan Monarez testified that Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., had demanded she rubber-stamp recommendations from his remade vaccine panel

A childhood health report led by RFK, Jr., links poor diet, chemicals, inactivity and “overmedicalization” to worsening U.S. pediatric health

West Coast states are forming their own vaccine compact as Florida announces plans to ditch shot requirements for schoolchildren

The EPA fired five agency employees who signed a June declaration decrying moves that contradict science and undermine public health and issued removal notices to four more

Telling people exactly how voting security works helps defeat election misinformation, experiments suggest. But outside experts question how well that works in the real world

Overcoming three recent failed tries, Elon Musk’s rocket company successfully flew its reusable jumbo booster and upper-stage Starship spacecraft

Federal officials seized 3,000 copies of Scientific American in 1950 in a “red scare” era of attacks on science. The move backfired and offers lessons for today

A controversial arsenic microbe study unveiled 15 years ago has been retracted. The study’s authors are crying foul

The red flags abound—political research tells us the U.S. is becoming an autocracy

An unhinged 2026 U.S. budget proposal would hollow NASA to a husk bent to Elon Musk’s whims. Only one mission can save the space agency

A shameful mass propaganda campaign is unfolding in the U.S., one that will make millions of kids needlessly sick with measles

From public health to space exploration, advisory panels have helped U.S. agencies make smarter decisions. The Trump administration wants to kill them