Abstractions blog

When life first emerged roughly 4 billion years ago, DNA may have been a much more malleable molecule.

Scientists are having a difficult time finding a treatment for the Zika virus in part because so few drugs are safe for pregnant women. But one antibiotic has shown promise.

By blasting a stack of minerals with a four-meter-long gun, scientists have found a new clue about the backstory of a very strange rock.

A newly discovered anole on the island of Hispaniola confirms that the buildup of ecological communities can follow predictable patterns.

Peter Scholze is a favorite to win one of the highest honors in mathematics for his contributions in number theory and geometry.

Rampant rumors and a new analysis undercut hopes of a major discovery at the Large Hadron Collider.

Nature’s laws are beautiful because they strike a compromise between boring symmetry and confusing asymmetry, physicists say.

Metal-eating microbes get energy from rocks and could teach us about life on other worlds — but first scientists had to learn how to grow them in the lab.

Figuring out how these molecules form in the deep recesses of interstellar space might illuminate the origins of one of life’s distinguishing features.