At the core of quantum computing is the qubit. The best ones have a few defining traits, and scientists are looking to everything from lasers to Russian diamonds to help refine the best qubits for the next generation of quantum computing.

In the late 1970s, a harbor seal named Hoover began catcalling passersby at the New England Aquarium in a thick Maine accent. A new study confirms seals’ uncanny ability to copy human speech.

A new study suggests a half-ton bird roamed Europe nearly 2 million years ago, around when our Homo predecessors were first entering the region.

A new study reveals that some European Neanderthals might have displaced their relatives in Siberia, while others mingled with another, still mysterious, ancient human population.

In Côte d’Ivoire, employees at Fairtrade-certified cocoa cooperatives have higher salaries and better working conditions than those at non-certified organizations. Farm laborers, on the other hand, don’t fare as well.

How “change blindness” prevents you from seeing this 10 of clubs turn into an ace of spades.

Deep sleep and REM sleep could be universal among vertebrates, stretching 450 million years back in evolutionary time.

A swine virus that appeared in the U.S. in 2013 has proven hard to track. But an algorithm might help researchers predict the next outbreak.

A new analysis of a skull found in Greece decades ago suggests that early humans may have been in Eurasia as early as 210,000 years ago.

A chicken-sized raptor relative adds credence to the idea that flight evolved multiple times among ground-faring dinosaurs.

The breakthrough suggests that bots can navigate complex games involving multiple stakeholders and hidden information—situations that better approximate the real world than two-player board games.

Neutron star innards are not your mom’s lasagna.

Researchers are developing robots that use AI to read emotions and social cues, making them better at interacting with humans. Are they a solution to labor shortages in fields like health care and education, a threat to human workers, or both?

A new fossil find may help pinpoint the origins of mammals’ uber-flexible hyoid bone, which anchors the tongue and gives us our signature swallowing style.

The new material could have applications in robotics and medicine.

Killing red tide cells en masse can unleash their potent toxin. That means researchers need to get creative.

Even while still in their eggs, baby birds can hear their parents’ alarm calls. They then pass the message along to unhatched siblings so the entire clutch emerges aware of the dangers ahead.

Under extreme conditions, a human can produce more than three gallons of sweat in a single day.

The border collie achieved international fame for her remarkable grasp on vocabulary and sentence structure.

The burnt ruins of a Maya city in what’s now Guatemala hold clues to its untimely demise at the turn of the 7th century.

A rare iron isotope produced by exploding stars has been found in Antarctic snow.

Researchers eroding clay in water may have uncovered secrets of meteorites’ aerodynamic stability.

Scientists studying diamonds from deep within Earth’s mantle found evidence of a reservoir of rocks and gas that may be nearly as old as the planet itself.

The threat of mercury in seafood was curbed with regulations, but climate change could drive levels back up.

The virus simmered quietly in Cuba for about a year before infecting thousands.

The feces contain the oldest example of parasite DNA ever recorded.

Artifacts unearthed in Idaho challenge the idea that the first people to populate the Americas made the journey on foot around the end of the Ice Age.

These nosy rodents may not speak bird-ese, per se, but they can still use avian chatter as a safety cue.

Lava descending into Hawai‘i’s ocean drove an upward surge of deep sea nutrients, cultivating life at the surface.

Scientists say the planet, called K2-18b, is “the best candidate for habitability” beyond our solar system.

A new study hints at the ways in which air pollution may directly impact a fetus.

In the largest Arctic expedition yet, researchers will gather as much data as they can on the fading ice—and climate change.

A new study suggests a plume of dust once blocked the sun’s rays from Earth, triggering an ice age some 466 million years ago.

A new analysis predicts that 3,196 animals will join the 5,579 already snared in the global wildlife market.

Astronomers discovered 20 new moons around Saturn, bringing its total to 82.

Mathematical modeling and AI can pick out patterns preceding epidemics that human brains can’t readily discern.

The study, originally published in June, contained an error that its authors caught months later.

In a new study, brain-like organoids made from human cells were slower to mature than their chimpanzee and macaque counterparts.

Nearly half a billion years ago, marine arthropods called trilobites lined up single-file before meeting a tragic end.

Researchers aren’t sure how these birds maintain this deafening mating ritual without damaging their hearing.

Thousands of fossils from Colorado show how plants and animals evolved together after an asteroid devastated life on Earth.

Researchers used artificial intelligence to reevaluate elevations vulnerable to rising sea levels.

In addition to causing disease itself, the virus destroys immune cells trained to respond to other pathogens the body has encountered before.

The images confirm the species, which has been “lost” to science for 29 years, is alive and well in its native Vietnam.

Leonardo da Vinci dissected some 30 cadavers in his lifetime, leaving behind a trove of beautiful—and accurate—anatomical drawings.

A glimpse into the lives of the MOSAiC mission’s polar bear guards—and the powerful predators they watch for.

New findings bolster the argument that the two groups of early humans had a lot of behavioral similarities.

Shivering can activate a series of “heating stations” for your blood vessels—but they take a little while to get up and running.

NOVA Labs Intern Chloe Nosan reflects on her experience working on the platform's newest resource on global climate change: The Polar Lab.