Richard Harris

Scientists based their technique on the one used to create the sheep Dolly years ago. These cells might one day be useful in treating all sorts of diseases.

There's no treatment yet for the deadly viral disease, but several approaches are in the works. At least one experimental drug seems effective in monkeys. Next step: safety tests in people.

New drugs are usually tested in animals before they're tested in humans. But many of those studies aren't done carefully enough, analysts say. So time and money is wasted, and treatments are delayed.

Several scientific teams are developing sensitive tests for tumor DNA that, when perfected, could be used to diagnose cancer earlier, and more closely monitor the response to treatment.

It's not about making designer beer. Johns Hopkins scientists and undergrads stitched together strands of yeast DNA as a step in exploring the essential genetics of various species: What makes us us?

More than 70,000 deaths a year are caused by hospital-acquired infections, a CDC survey of U.S. hospitals finds. The numbers are improving, doctors say, but not fast enough.

The human nose may be able to distinguish more than a trillion different odors and fragrances, research hints. If true, our noses are much more discerning with smells than our eyes are with color.

Drugs used to treat the flu really did save the lives of seriously ill people during the influenza pandemic of 2009-2010, a study in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine suggests.

Adults who promptly received doses of Tamiflu, Relenza or related drugs were half as likely to die in ...

It sounds like a good idea: anticipating flu's spread by monitoring a region's online searches. But sometimes a sneeze is just a cold.

An expert panel at the National Academy of Sciences is calling for an early warning system to alert us to abrupt and potentially catastrophic events triggered by climate change.

The committee says science can anticipate some major changes to the Earth that could affect everything from agriculture to sea ...

There is a broad scientific consensus that to keep global warming in check, we need to phase out 80 percent of all oil, coal and natural gas by midcentury. President Obama has set a nonbinding target to do precisely that.

There are technologists who say this national goal is well ...

The deadly typhoon that swept through the Philippines was one of the strongest ever recorded. But storms nearly this powerful are actually common in the eastern Pacific. Typhoon Haiyan's devastation can be chalked up to a series of bad coincidences.

Typhoons — known in our part of the world as ...

This story is part of a series on commuting in America.

Orangutans Kiko, Iris and Batang have a short commute — only about 500 feet between the buildings at the National Zoo where they sleep and pass their days. But it's a tricky trip.

They travel 50 feet above the ...

Less than 1 percent of the world's oceans are set aside as protected areas, but diplomats meeting now in Australia could substantially increase that figure.

Delegates from 24 nations and the European Union have convened to consider proposals to create vast new marine protected areas around Antarctica.

This same group ...

NASA's two Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977, have made history in a dramatic fashion by exploring the outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Now one of the vehicles, Voyager I, has made another pioneering leap. It is the first spacecraft to leave the vast bubble of hot gas that ...

Glaciers in the Alps of Europe pose a scientific mystery. They started melting rapidly back in the 1860s. In a span of about 50 years, some of the biggest glaciers had retreated more than half a mile.

But nobody could explain the glacier's rapid decline. Now, a new study ...

A major feature of the Earth has escaped notice — until now.

Scientists reported Thursday that they've discovered a vast canyon, twice as long as the Grand Canyon. It carves a deep scar from the center of the world's largest island out to the coast. And, oh one more ...