New observations of a faraway rocky world that might have its own magnetic field could help astronomers understand the seemingly haphazard magnetic fields swaddling our solar system’s planets.

Genetic elements called Mavericks that have some viral features could be responsible for the large-scale smuggling of DNA between species.

Inside of a black hole, the two theoretical pillars of 20th-century physics appear to clash. Now a group of young physicists think they have resolved the conflict by appealing to the central pillar of the new century — the physics of quantum information.

The numbers count a variety of seemingly unrelated mathematical structures.

For over a century, biologists have had to contend with a complicated picture of genetics, which they’ve only recently begun to understand.

Yael Tauman Kalai’s breakthroughs secure our digital world, from cloud computing to our quantum future.

Even empty space bubbles with energy, according to quantum mechanics — and that fact affects almost every facet of physical reality. The theoretical physicist Isabel Garcia Garcia explains to Steven Strogatz why it’s so important in modern physics to understand what a true vacuum is.

The reshuffling of neurons during fruit fly metamorphosis suggests that larval memories don’t persist in adults.

By measuring the universe’s emptiest spaces, scientists can study how matter clumps together and how fast it flies apart.