science

Research studies by Betsy Sparrow of Columbia University "support a growing belief that people are using the Internet as a personal memory bank: the so-called Google effect." Yes, the awareness that we can look things up easily later makes our memories worse. But when it comes to retrieving that online data, she notes, "We're remarkably efficient."

Spurred largely by a 1999 report that cited gender discrimination among reasons why women accounted for less than 10% of MIT's science and engineering faculty, the school made a concerted effort to address the stereotypes and misconceptions that limited women's advancement through MIT's academia. The effort appears to have paid off.

A new study says top-performing teachers turn out students who learn more than the students who had the worst teachers. And that extra learning has a huge impact on earnings -- and the nation's economy. Still, some educational experts say the study raises more questions than it answers.

Aside from the embarrassment, researchers know deceptions like the autism research fraud can have much larger consequences, both for the parents of autistic children and for the future of their studies. Says one prominent scientist: "It taints a lot of very good work that goes on."

NASA has discovered a bacteria that can use arsenic -- which is toxic to most forms of life -- as a building block of its DNA. Scientists say the discovery may broaden our definition of what constitutes life and may revolutionize how we search for life beyond Earth.

Social media websites such as Facebook make people more sociable, researchers say. The findings contradict a widespread belief that online socializing is replacing in person contact as people shun the world beyond their computer screen. "Our findings suggest that Facebook is not supplanting...

Virgin Galactic, which aims to be the world's first commercial space carrier, successfully tested its suborbital spaceship, Enterprise. Enterprise made its first solo test flight in California on Sunday, BBC News reported. The spaceship was carried to 45,000 feet by a plane, then dropped to glide...

In an effort to boost worker skills to better match the needs of employers, President Barack Obama today unveiled Skills For America's Future, a new initiative to increase workforce development, worker training and job placement.

In the U.S., 52% of companies report problems attracting critical-skill employees. And some of the hottest jobs over the next 10 to 15 years require tech skills that most people aren't learning. Here's what some workers and companies are doing about it.

At a total of nearly 5 million barrels, the spill from BP ruptured Macondo well easily outstrips the previous record of 3.3 million barrels released into the Bay of Campeche by Mexico's Ixtoc I rig in 1979.