They look like baseball bats morphing into bowling pins, their ends flaring into an aggressive bulge that suddenly tapers. So how do they work?

New tests of blood and spinal fluid can identify people experiencing memory loss from Alzheimer's disease.

Some 2,000 scientists, including dozens of Nobel Prize winners, have signed an open letter warning that the U.S. lead in science is being "decimated" by the Trump administration's cuts to research.

Leaders from rural communities in eight states travelled to Washington, D.C., last week to urge lawmakers to preserve federal funding that's threatened by the Trump administration.

You don't need to visit Japan or Washington, D.C. to see cherry blossom trees. Here are three places around the U.S. where you can see the blooms — weather permitting.

SpaceX launched four people into space Monday evening on a first-ever human mission to orbit Earth's polar regions. If successful, the mission also will be the first to cultivate mushrooms as a crop.

NPR's Brian Mann and North Country Public Radio's David Sommerstein head into the high country for a spring picnic surrounded by sun — and snow.

NPR's Scott Detrow talks with Robert Scheller, landscape ecology professor at North Carolina State University, about the increasing risk for wildfires in southeast and southern Appalachian regions.

A genetic change that boosts a cell's aerobic capacity while also protecting it from excess stress could explain how horses became such powerful athletes, according to a new study in Science.

Springtime means cherry blossoms in the nation's capital. On a recent breezy morning, with peak bloom still two days away, the Tidal Basin was packed with both blossoms and visitors.