Stories by Stephanie Pappas

Fossils of a human ancestor from 773,000 years ago may be near the base of the Homo sapiens lineage, representing a common ancestor of modern humans, Neandertals and Denisovans

New medications are in the pipeline that could help people win their battles against addictive substances, including opioids

Bones of now extinct species became a haven for bee babies thousands of years ago, scientists report in a first-of-its-kind discovery

A rapidly intensifying low-pressure system off the coast is keeping the worst of the snow away from Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C.

The Hayli Gubbi volcano, long thought to be dormant, sent ash nine miles into the sky in an eruption on Sunday

Humans and their ancestors have likely been kissing for a very long time

A meeting of the Pan American Health Organization this week will address the resurgence of measles in the Americas

Theorists have found that a “warm” version of cosmic inflation is consistent with known physics, linking it to the hunt for dark matter

A blizzard that trapped hundreds of trekkers on Mount Everest was truly “off the charts,” experts explain

Up to 98 percent of the energy of an earthquake goes into flash heating rocks, not shaking the ground, new research shows. The finding could help yield better earthquake forecasts

Seemingly contradictory materials are trapped together in two glittering diamonds from South Africa, shedding light on how diamonds form

A type of bacteria found in clean rooms has an unexpected method of survival, with implications for planetary protection

One-off cases of malaria in the U.S. may become more common as warming temperatures lead to booming mosquito populations

Rabbits spotted with hornlike growths on their face in northern Colorado are doing better than they look

Meltwater from a glacial lake outburst is flooding Juneau, Alaska. Such events are likely to happen more often as climate change destabilizes ice and glacial lakes fill with more meltwater

Speed and flexibility have made mRNA a blockbuster technology

Infectious bird flu virus was found in milk, on equipment, within wastewater and aerosolized in the air on California dairy farms

Water usually flows downward, but something strange happened under Greenland’s ice sheet when a deluge punched through the surface to scour an area nearly twice the size of New York’s Central Park

The park’s newest hydrothermal feature has an otherworldly milky texture from dissolved silica

The H5N1 avian flu is circulating in cows and other mammals. Whether it will make a permanent leap to humans is another question

Influenza viruses like bird flu can mix and match their genomes, and this has played a role in at least three of the last four flu pandemics

As more men turn to testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) for energy, mood and muscle, experts warn the risks are still not fully understood.

Screwworm parasites primarily infect livestock, but human cases have risen in Central America after the pests escaped containment

To boost mood and manliness, men are spending lots of money on the hormone testosterone—yet they may see trouble instead of benefits