Joe Palca

In 1793, French scientist Joseph Dombey boarded a ship bound for the United States carrying with him a standard kilogram weight. Thanks to pirates, he and the weight never arrived.

Turns out that Einstein was right about what happens when neutron stars collide. An international team of astronomers has confirmed his theory for the first time.

A two-story tall, digital camera is taking shape in California. It will ultimately go on a telescope in Chile where it will survey the sky, looking for things that appear suddenly or change over time.

People who have Type-1 diabetes would love to be free of insulin injections and pumps. Researchers in San Francisco are now testing in animals an implantable pouch of living, insulin-releasing cells.

Three scientists won this year's Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of gravitational waves. These ripples in space and time are generated when really big things, like black holes, collide.

The prize in physics is being split between three physicists who are part of the LIGO/VIRGO Collaboration that detected gravitational waves for the first time.

A painkiller cream is based on sound scientific reasoning, but hasn't undergone tests to prove it works. You can buy it on the Internet, but should you?

The wave was generated by the merging of two spinning black holes, and took nearly 2 billion years to reach Earth. It is the fourth gravitational wave detection announced so far.

Astronomers are continuing their search for a giant planet they believe is lurking at the outer reaches of the solar system.

The Cassini mission to Saturn ends on Friday. Scientists will steer the spacecraft into Saturn's atmosphere and watch it burn up.

NASA's probe has spent the past 13 years orbiting Saturn, making a number of important discoveries along the way. On Friday, it will hurl itself into the planet's atmosphere and disintegrate.

The Army wanted a new, small device that could pull a person rapidly up a rope. The invention they eventually got has uses far beyond the military.

The blood thinner warfarin, which prevents blood clots, owes its existence to some cows who got very sick after eating spoiled hay — and to a chemist who spent years trying to figure out why.

A total solar eclipse will make its way from Oregon to South Carolina. Millions are in the path of the eclipse, and millions more are head to locations where the total eclipse will be visible.

A big waste of money or the engine of marketplace innovation? That's how some people see basic scientific research. Now a new study shows how basic research and inventions are connected.

In Leipzig, Germany, two scientists from very different backgrounds are working on a unique research project.

Inventing even the simplest product is a fraught process. Mike Davidson and Mike Smith have learned that lesson the hard way as they seek to change the way teeth get cleaned.

The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module was pumped up after it arrived at the International Space Station in 2016. NASA says it's doing well in the harsh environment.

Entrepreneur Mary Anderson thought it made no sense that New York streetcar drivers had to keep jumping off to clean snow from the windshield. She soon won a patent for her "window cleaning device."

It was a harrowing journey. Nedal Said made a new life in Germany — and found what he'd always been looking for.