Joe Palca

On Feb. 28, 1953, two scientists named James Watson and Francis Crick had a flash of insight that changed the world. They discovered the double helix structure of DNA.

Correspondent Joe Palca is retiring after 30 years covering science for NPR. We have an homage to his work - sometimes silly, sometimes serious, always scientific.

More than two decades ago a small probe carrying an even smaller rover landed on Mars. Pathfinder and the Sojourner rover paved the way for sophisticated robotic explorers that have landed since 1997.

Technicians are putting the final touches on the world's largest digital camera at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The camera will be sent to Chile and installed on a telescope in the Andes.

NASA's InSight probe landed on Mars in 2018 to help scientists study the planet's interior. But Martian dust has been building up on InSIght's solar arrays, which could end its mission.

A new report commissioned by the National Science Foundation finds a culture of silence and fear among employees at U.S.-run facilities in Antarctica.

The inventors of Corbevax said it was cheap, easy to make, effective and safe. They hoped it could bring vaccine equity to countries that can't access costlier shots. Has it lived up to its promise?

The vaccine maker alleges that its rivals Pfizer and BioNTech used some patented features of its mRNA technology to develop their COVID vaccines.

As part of our summer series on sweat, we get answers to the questions: Do we need to sweat during sleep? And, why does a warm bath help you sleep, even if it makes you sweat?

NPR begins a celebration of sweat — what it's made of, where it comes from and what it smells like. Spoiler alert: most of the time it doesn't have any smell at all.

The head of the Russian space agency has said his country will end its participation in the International Space Station in 2024. What does this mean for the future of its partnership with NASA?

NASA is releasing four more cosmic images from the James Webb telescope.

NASA's $10 billion new telescope will show the world something remarkable today: an image of some of the first galaxies to form in the universe.

NASA has lost contact with a satellite called CAPSTONE intended to study a new kind of orbit around the moon. It's the same orbit the agency plans to use in future missions to send humans to the moon.

Twenty teams in Canada received small grants to develop portable medical tools that could be used on long interplanetary space flights. They could also be useful in remote parts of Canada.

By converting sounds to images, scientists can use artificial intelligence to quickly find and assess animals' calls, even deep in the ocean.

Peter Hotez and Maria Elena Bottazzi used an oldie-but- goodie technology to devise a vaccine that's easy to make — and relatively cheap. India has already ordered 300 million doses.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope successfully deployed its massive sunshield Tuesday, a critical step in the powerful observatory's unfolding. It begins deploying its secondary mirror Wednesday.

A low cost vaccine called Corbevax may help solve the problem of getting safe and effective COVID vaccines to poor and middle-income countries.

NASA mission managers successfully completed the most complicated part of the unfolding process of James Webb Space Telescope's sunshield — a critical stage in the powerful observatory's deployment.