Inside the Breakthrough Starshot Mission to Alpha Centauri

A billionaire-funded plan aims to send a probe to another star. But can it be done?

A New Model for Defeating Cancer: CAR T Cells

Some advanced cancers can now be successfully treated by synthetic immune cells that are more powerful and longer-lasting than any found in the body

What Inequality Does to the Brain

Poverty may affect the size, shape and functioning of a young child's brain. Would a cash stipend to parents help prevent harm?

Fossil Pigments Reveal the True Colors of Dinosaurs

Long thought impossible, preservation of fossil pigments is allowing scientists to reconstruct extinct organisms with unprecedented accuracy—a feat that is yielding surprising insights into the lives they led...

The Search for a New Test of Artificial Intelligence

Researchers need new ways to distinguish artificial intelligence from the natural kind

A Beetle Is Destroying U.S. Corn, So Scientists Are Punching at the Insect's Genes

Technology to defeat the corn rootworm, scientists worry, will work only briefly against an inventive foe

Full Genome Sequencing for Newborns Raises Questions

Testing every newborn for a raft of known genetic risks is technologically feasible. Some worry the results could do more harm than good

How Private Is Your "Voice Assistant" Device?

A guide to how well Alexa, Siri, Google Now and the rest guard your secrets

More Book Recommendations for March

New science books to check out 

Aviation in 1917: The State of the Industry and Science [Slide Show]