Joe Palca

Earlier this year, a pair of scientists predicted the existence of a ninth planet based on computer modeling of the solar system. This fall, the race is on to be the first to spot it in a telescope.

Many of the most powerful antibiotics have lost their punch. Some Stanford students think they've found a different way to attack bacteria that the germs can't overcome.

"There's something about waves that can get you into kind of a mental funk," one philosopher says. For NPR's summer science series, Joe Palca tries to answer the big question: What is a wave?

Scientists in Germany have found a potentially powerful antibiotic that can kill dangerous bacteria. Maybe the most impressive thing about the new compound is where scientists found it: the human nose.

The color image shows Jupiter's giant red spot and three of its moons: Io, Europa and Ganymede.

Space navigation is tricky. There's no up or down, no left or right, and no road signs. This device uses stars to help determine if a spacecraft is off course. It takes nifty pictures, too.

The craft is designed to glean data from Jupiter that could also help us learn how Earth formed. But first, Juno has to get into orbit — determined by a crucial half-hour of firing by its main engine.

Joe Palca was fresh out of college in 1975 when he got a job as a lab tech, working for a young scientist and country music fan who would one day harness the immune system to fight cancer.

Melanoma can be a deadly skin cancer, but 10 years ago, biologist Jim Allison figured out a way to tweak the body's immune system to go after those malignant cells. Some patients are now cancer-free.

Tessa Hill and Jessica Hellmann are today's Science Ask Me Anything (AMA) guests on Reddit. NPR's Joe Palca sits down with them to talk about climate change and science communication.

Many combatants return from the battlefield with hearing loss. The U.S. Army has begun deploying a "smart earplug" system that can protect hearing without blocking crucial sounds.

Correspondents, editors and producers from our newsroom share the pieces that have kept them reading, using the #NPRreads hashtag. Each weekend, we highlight some of the best stories.

The module known as BEAM can be folded so it takes up less room in a cargo rocket, and then expanded once it reaches space. Or at least that's the hope.

He shared chemistry's top prize in 1996 for finding buckyballs, and had Lou Gehrig's disease when he died. Making art was his first love. "Remember your humanity," he said, "and forget the rest."

Eggs are among the strongest structures in nature. Watch this video by the eggheads at Joe's Big Idea to find out why!

Human skin has properties that are hard to mimic, but a Stanford engineer is working to create a type of artificial skin that can sense, heal and generate its own power.

On Friday, a supply rocket is scheduled to send an inflatable module to the International Space Station. The expandable technology is being developed by a private firm.

When summer brings heat, humidity and mosquitoes, cities along the Gulf Coast may become gateways for Zika into the U.S. Impoverished areas are likely to bear the brunt, health officials say.

Astronomers have known about the powerful pulses but had never been able to catch one in the act to help figure out what's producing them. Last year, they got one.

Scientists were studying the properties of the light coming from a quasar — one of the brightest objects in the universe — when the light just seemed to wink out. Now they think they know why.