With conventional medicines in short supply during the Civil War, the Confederacy turned to plant-based alternatives in desperation. New research suggests some of these remedies were actually quite good at fighting off infections—a finding that could lead to effective new drugs.

Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe aborted an attempt to drop a highly reflective target marker on the surface of Ryugu in preparation for its second sample extraction mission. But with surface temperatures rising steadily on the asteroid, the probe is running out of time.

Our Moon features a nearside and far side with dramatically different geological features. This anomaly has puzzled scientists for years, but new computer simulations suggest the Moon’s asymmetric disposition can be traced back to an ancient collision with another object—possibly a dwarf planet.

Some 3 million years ago, a tiny mouse featuring reddish fur on its back and a white belly scurried across the landscape of what is now Germany. We know this thanks to a remarkable new breakthrough in which reddish color pigment was detected in an ancient fossil—a scientific first.

Dental evidence suggests Neanderthals and modern humans diverged from a common ancestor around 800,000 years ago—hundreds of thousands of years earlier than standard estimates. The finding could finally reveal the provenance of our shared ancestry, but some experts say the new evidence is unconvincing.

An ancient burial practice involving the use of massive stone jars seems to have been more widespread in Southeast Asia than once assumed, owing to a surprising trove of new discoveries in Laos.

All 15 people found in a Bronze Age mass grave in southern Poland were killed by a blow to the head, yet their bodies were buried together with great care and consideration. Genetic evidence now suggests these individuals were members of the same extended family—a finding that’s casting new light on a tumultuous era…

Unusual and abundant glassy spheres found packed within the beach sands near the Japanese city of Hiroshima are remnants of the 1945 atomic bomb explosion, according to new research.

An upcoming exhibit at Space Center Houston will feature the core section of the Falcon 9 rocket used in two NASA missions.

Northern Europeans who speak Uralic languages, such as Estonian and Finnish, can thank ancient migrating Siberian populations for their dialects, according to a fascinating new study that combined genetics, archaeology, and linguistics.

A newly discovered visual system in deep-sea fish could allow them to discern predators from prey in the low-light conditions found at the bottom of the ocean, new research suggests.

A recent parachute test of the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule “was not satisfactory,” a NASA official said during a House subcommittee hearing yesterday. Few details were disclosed, but it’s now looking even less likely that NASA will have the capability to fly astronauts to space anytime soon.

During the Jurassic period, various dinosaurs experimented with different forms of powered flight. The discovery of a new dinosaur species in China suggests some of these pioneering flyers evolved webbed fingers and an elongated forelimb, allowing them to fly in a distinctly bat-like fashion.

Archaeologists in the Bolivian Andes have discovered a 1,000-year-old ritual bundle—basically a stash of drug paraphernalia—containing traces five different psychoactive substances, including cocaine and the active ingredients found in ayahuasca.

The InSight lander seems to have been hit by one of Mars’ famous dust devils, but don’t worry—the NASA probe is just fine. If anything, the sudden blast of wind helped to clear off some annoying dust that had been collecting on the probe’s solar panels. The passing wind vortex also produced some cool science.

An upcoming experiment aboard the International Space Station will test the effects of microgravity on living cells mixed with tiny ceramic particles. The test could result in powerful new antioxidants to treat the deleterious effects of prolonged exposure to space as well as various age-related diseases.

Paleontologists have identified a previously unknown relative of T. rex that stood just below 3 feet at the hip. The discovery is shedding new light on the evolutionary origins of tyrannosaurs, while providing a glimpse of these fearsome creatures before they reached enormous sizes.

Researchers working off the coast of Mexico have discovered evidence of arsenic-breathing life in oxygen-starved waters. These resilient microbes are a vestige of Earth’s ancient past, but they could also be a sign of things to come under the influence of climate change.

After weeks of speculation, SpaceX has finally admitted that a Crew Dragon capsule was destroyed during a test of system’s abort thrusters on April 20. No cause was given for the anomaly, nor were any new details disclosed about possible delays to NASA’s languishing Commercial Crew Program.