It’s not easy to find active plate tectonics on other worlds, but doing so may bring us one step closer to finding a planet that can support life.

2016 was a lot of things, but for astronomers, it meant the discovery of some of the farthest, faintest, and youngest objects in the universe we've seen yet.

Gene-editing tools like CRISPR enable us to program life at its most fundamental level. But this raises some pressing questions: If we can generate new species from scratch, what should we build? Should we redesign humanity as we know...

Love is a complicated combination of brain chemicals and behavior that scientists are only just beginning to figure out. And it's remarkable that in every society that we have looked at on Earth, romantic love exists. So if love is so...

The simplest organisms can still accomplish wonders.

A new detector can use neutrinos to help us take a peek inside Earth, and a study of jellyfish galaxies can help us understand more about an unsolved problem in astronomy.

YouTube and NBC invited us to make a video for the final Democratic Candidate's Debate before the US Presidential primaries. Here's our video (about climate change & energy), Lester Holt's question, & the candidates'...

What gives the ocean its distinct, sometimes pungent smell? It turns out the answer is more than just dead fish or salt: it’s the scent of tons of phytoplankton being munched on!

These days it seems almost trivial to cool atoms down to near absolute zero temperatures in a lab, but what is the lowest possible naturally occurring air temperature on this planet?

On a cosmic scale, Mercury isn’t very far away, but it's incredibly hard to get there. Getting into orbit around it takes years of flybys in the solar system, but we're going to do it again!

Asteroid strikes get all the coverage, but "Medea Hypothesis" author Peter Ward argues that most of Earth's mass extinctions were caused by lowly bacteria. The culprit, a poison called hydrogen sulfide, may have an interesting...

Days before this talk, journalist Naomi Klein was on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, looking at the catastrophic results of BP's risky pursuit of oil. Our societies have become addicted to extreme risk in finding new energy, new financial...

How can cities help save the future? Alex Steffen shows some cool neighborhood-based green projects that expand our access to things we want and need -- while reducing the time we spend in cars.

Climate action can be a vehicle to deliver dignity, opportunity and equality for all. UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed invites us to reimagine what the journey to net-zero could look like if we invest in people's climate...

Nearly all life on Earth is ultimately powered by light. But many creatures have learned how to make their own. This week we investigate the beautiful phenomenon of bioluminescence. From blinking fireflies on summer nights to glowing...

It's easy to take things at face value in video games. But when we take a deeper dive into the physics in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, it seems that the "MOON" might be one of those things that isn't quite what it seems. Given its...

Last week, seven earth-like planets were discovered orbiting a Red Dwarf star 39 light years away. Each one could be capable of supporting life.

Convince just 100 key companies to go sustainable, and WWF's Jason Clay says global markets will shift to protect the planet our consumption has already outgrown. Hear how his extraordinary roundtables are getting big brand rivals to...

A world only 2°C warmer, or 3.6°F, would be one that is much different than the world we live in today, but what does that actually look like?

We recently got an important update from the IPCC, the definitive source on the climate crisis. And while there's not a ton of good news, there are some bits of hope if we can ramp up our actions now.

Scientists have had to come up with some extreme ways to generate the extreme pressures needed to simulate the conditions at the cores of planets!

Unfortunately, time machines don't exist, but there are other ways to learn about our sun's past.

Not all of the objects in the solar system are named after Greek and Roman gods -- some are named after literary figures, movie stars, and don't get us started on what people think Earth is really called.

Every star we see in the sky has at least one planet orbiting it, says astronomer Sara Seager. So what do we know about these exoplanets, and how can we find out more? Seager introduces her favorite set of exoplanets and shows new...