Science

Starfish in the Pacific northwest are being decimated by what's called wasting disease. Researcher Drew Harvell tells NPR's Scott Simon that warming seas are making it worse.

Washington state is home to more glaciers than any other state in the lower 48. And they're receding faster than ever before.

During sleep, the brain locks in existing memories and can even form new ones. Scientists say they are starting to understand how that happens. A midnight snack may interfere.

Converting the shells into biogas could provide most of the heat for a planned city of 200,000, engineers say. There's precedent in Australia, where macadamia nut shells are generating power.

Three years of severe drought in California is forcing farmers and ranchers to make some tough choices. In some cases, they're rethinking everything about their business and finding new opportunities.

A NASA computer model visualizes in detail where carbon dioxide is released, how it moves across the globe and how it's affected by the seasons.

Faulty forms of the brain protein tau trigger tangles inside and outside brain cells of Alzheimer's patients. Scientists say figuring out how to stop bad tau's spread from cell to cell might be key.

Modafinil has been approved for treatment of narcolepsy, but it's often used to improve mental performance. The question is, does it work? A new study says probably not.

Researchers gear up tests in West Africa to see whether blood from Ebola survivors can help people who are sick with the disease. This is part of a broader effort to test therapies in West Africa.

Large-scale hog operations get a bad environmental rap. But when it comes to processing the animals, the industry is a model of efficiency, making use of every last bit in sometimes surprising ways.

One challenge in evaluating the effectiveness of different medical procedures, is that patients behave differently after different procedures. Is this true for patients getting heart surgery?

An orbiting spacecraft caught the Philae lander bounding on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The lander sent home some scientific data before its batteries ran out.