Geoff Brumfiel

Geneticists have revised the evolutionary tree of birds, revealing some unlikely relationships.

Close stars as a suburban matron in a revival of Edward Albee's 1966 play. She tells NPR about the timelessness of Albee's play and getting a nosebleed in the middle of a recent matinee.

A spacecraft on its way to Pluto has just woken up from hibernation. By next month, scientists expect to have the first good pictures of the dwarf planet. All of the others have been, well, crummy.

NASA successfully launched and landed a test version of its next-generation Orion spacecraft on Friday morning. The unmanned test is the first for the follow-on to the shuttle.

NASA plans to launch an unmanned capsule named "Orion" from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday. NASA hopes that Orion will one day carry astronauts beyond Earth's orbit and even to Mars.

The new vehicle, named Orion, is designed to carry humans into deep space. But most Americans aren't aware it exists.

Two NASA astronauts are aboard the International Space Station. Turkey is on the menu but not pumpkin pie. NASA can't make pumpkin pie in space because the crust doesn't come out right.

Updated at 3:45PM ET

It was the first ever landing on a comet, and it was perfect.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the journey for the European Space Agency's unmanned Philae lander. After touching down on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, the lander bounced off the surface and flew a kilometer ...

For more than a year, the so-called Islamic State and al-Qaida have viewed each other as rivals. Now, reports out of Syria suggest the two may have worked out a truce.

After a major investigation into America's nuclear forces, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel says that he will be investing billions of dollars into the system, and changing to the way it's managed.

Scientists have established contact with the lander, but they're not sure where on the comet it is. The lander apparently bounced after touching down, and its future may be uncertain.

At the first congressional hearing on ISIS since the U.S. began bombing that force in Syria, Republicans called for U.S. boots on the ground, while Democrats questioned whether Iraq's...

The European Space Agency on Wednesday successfully landed a probe on the surface of a comet — something that has never been done before. But scientists say the lander may not be fully secure.

The European Space Agency is about to try to put a probe where none has gone before: on the surface of a comet.

The lander, called Philae, is set to be released from the Rosetta spacecraft early Wednesday ET. If all goes as planned, it will undergo a seven-hour ...

Putting a probe on a comet's surface would be a first for mankind. But it doesn't look like it will be easy.

The dream of hundreds of space tourists was dealt a blow last Friday when Virgin Galactic's experimental SpaceShipTwo broke up over California's Mojave Desert. The pilot was injured and the co-pilot died in the accident.

But many are still holding on to their tickets.

"We're in a testing ...

Last week, a commercial spaceship built by Virgin Galactic crashed during a test flight. More than 700 had signed up for flights on the craft, and many are sticking with the project — for now.

Certain birth defects in male children are on the rise, and nobody knows why. Scientists say basic research into how external genitalia evolved in reptiles and rodents might offer a few clues.

On Friday, an experimental space plane crashed in the Mojave desert, killing one of its pilots. Now new details have emerged about what went wrong in the moments before the crash.

Scientists working to create the perfect atomic clock have a fundamental problem: Right now, on the ceiling, time is passing just a bit faster than it is on the floor.