John Matson is a former reporter and editor for Scientific American who has written extensively about astronomy and physics.
Dispatches from the May 2011 Dark Matter Symposium at the Space Telescope Science Institute
For four days in May, leading physicists and astronomers gathered in Baltimore to talk about the abundant but mysterious stuff that accounts for one quarter of the universe.
Evidence Mounts for New Physics via the Tevatron Particle Collider
Hope for Future Discoveries Both Near and Far at the American Astronomical Society Meeting
The Real Explosions in the Sky: Supernovae Translated into Music [Video]
Astronomical Deficit Forces Downsizing of U.S. Telescope Projects
The federal fiscal crisis is pushing NASA and National Science Foundation officials to make painful choices between present and proposed astronomy programs
Kepler Spacecraft Shows That Smaller Planets Abound
NASA's planet-hunting satellite is making the case that it's a small-world galaxy, after all
Arm's Trace: Astronomers Spot a Newfound Piece of the Milky Way Galaxy
A looping spiral arm of gas some 70,000 light-years away seems to preserve the galaxy's spiral symmetry
Judgment Day Math: The Numbers behind Harold Camping's May 21 Claim
Free Worlds: Billions of Extra-Stellar Planetary Bodies May Be Adrift in the Galaxy
When is a planet not a planet? A new study claims that the Milky Way is filled with Jupiter-mass celestial objects that do not orbit any star
Giant Radio Telescope in W. Virginia Scans Newfound Planets for Signs of Intelligent Life
Students from Border Town and Beyond Aim High in National Rocketry Contest
Teams from across the country will converge on Virginia this weekend to see who can fly the best model rocket mission
Cast Your Vote for the $10,000 People's Choice Award in the Google Science Fair
Accelerated Expectations: All Eyes on Large Hadron Collider in Dark Matter Hunt
Researchers from a number of overlapping disciplines are awaiting a big boost from the world's largest particle collider
Color-Changing Dots Earn Best Illusion of the Year Award
Array of Hope: Australia and South Africa Vie for Massive Radio Telescope Project
The ambitious, unprecedentedly vast Square Kilometer Array project should open up new realms in astrophysics. But will it live up to its name?
U.K. Government: "Climategate" No Reason to Doubt Climate Change
WIMP Wars: Astronomers and Physicists Remain Skeptical of Long-Standing Dark Matter Claim
An Italian research group has for years trumpeted a cyclical ebb and flow in particulate activity that the researchers ascribe to dark matter. But support for the claim has been hard to come by
Physics tricks could make for one-way soundproofing
Flexible, rolling robot copies caterpillar's escape mechanism [Video]
Budget crunch mothballs telescopes built to search for alien signals
What makes the luminous star known as Object X look so dim?
Deep Freeze: Mars Orbiter Finds Massive Stores of Buried Dry Ice
Radar soundings point to huge deposits of carbon dioxide near the Red Planet's south pole, which may have once contributed to a different climate
Heal thyself: Rubbery polymer self-repairs under light exposure
Searches for Human Remains Combine High-Tech with Low-Tech
The Long Island search for victims of a suspected serial killer has relied on aerial imaging as well as old-fashioned manpower