Nell Greenfieldboyce

Hair is soft compared with steel, but shaving can dull a razor surprisingly quickly. A new study examines exactly how a strand of hair can chip and crack a sharp blade.

NASA and SpaceX are welcoming home two astronauts who splashed down safely in the Gulf of Mexico after several months on the International Space Station.

Beetles make up around 40% of all insect species ever described and around 25% of all animals. Are there really that many different kinds of beetles, or do scientists have a strong pro-beetle bias?

The two NASA astronauts who flew on the SpaceX craft to the International Space Station in May are scheduled to return to Earth on Sunday. But there's a hurricane forecast for the splashdown vicinity.

Scientists have modified the genes of a squid, and genetically-altered octopuses could be coming soon.

Given the choice between an animal and a human, the Aedes aegypti species prefers ... us. A new study explains how that happened.

Experiments in people have long shown that the presence of indifferent bystanders hurts the chances that someone will help a stranger in an emergency. Rats, it turns out, behave the same way.

A snake researcher always wondered how flying snakes propelled themselves. Then, someone told him he should work with the snakes in The Cube — a vast theater space with cameras everywhere.

Scientists have found that dolphins learn a neat trick to trap fish by watching their close associates do it. This means that dolphins aren't just motivated to learn from their mothers.

A new study of dinosaur eggs, as well as a football-size egg from Antarctica, shows how some ancient creatures relied on soft shells rather than hard ones.

The return of sea otters to historic habitats can restore ecosystems and bring economic benefits, but hungry otters can also threaten the food security of remote indigenous communities.

NASA and SpaceX successfully launched NASA astronauts from US soil into space for the first time since 2011 on Saturday afternoon.

The successful SpaceX launch has its roots in two previous administrations, but President Trump credited his own leadership.

NASA and SpaceX plan to launch astronauts to the International Space Station on Wednesday. It'll be the first time a new kind of spacecraft has launched astronauts into orbit since the space shuttle.

Moss balls seem to roll around glaciers in a coordinated way, and researchers can't explain why the whole group moves at about the same speed and in the same direction.

The sudden departure of Doug Loverro startles the space community, which has been eagerly anticipating the planned May 27 launch of astronauts from U.S. soil for the first time since 2011.

Representatives from a number of states said the list provided to them for coronavirus testing contained labs that they already knew about, or ones that weren't approved for the testing.

The health care sector has cut 1.4 million jobs in April. And as COVID-19 has consumed health care resources, other essential routine procedures — like screenings for strokes — have gone down.

NPR's science and political correspondents discuss challenges that states are facing as they attempt to reopen their economies amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The space agency is urging people not to travel to go see astronauts embark on their historic launch from Florida, the first time they will do so in nearly a decade.