This image of the Southern Ring Nebula was one of the first James Webb Space Telescope images released to the public last year. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI hide caption
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A man searches for people in the rubble of a destroyed building in Gaziantep, Turkey, on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023. Mustafa Karali/AP hide caption
Eileen and Louise both got COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic in New York. Eileen ended up on a ventilator for two months and then spent five months in a rehab hospital. Louise fought the illness at home as hospitals started filling up. Gabriela Bhaskar for NPR hide caption
Guet N'dar, Senegal (October 7, 2022) - The neighborhood Khar Yalla, which means 'Waiting for God," in Wolof, was meant as a place for those who had been displaced by rising seas to live. But this neighborhood soon, too, was inundated with water. Ricci Shryock for NPR hide caption
Physicist Desiré Whitmore teaches workshops to help teachers better communicate science. As part of that, Desiré uses optical illusions to explain how social blind spots come into play in the classroom. Scott Barbour/Getty Images for NGV hide caption
People look at a dead gray whale at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, Calif., in May 2019, a year when 122 gray whales died in the U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Last year, 47 of the whales died. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption
Eye-popping egg prices have finally started to fall. Wholesale eggs in the Midwest market dropped by 58 cents to $3.29 a dozen at the end of January, according to USDA data. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption
Gas utilities and cooking stove manufacturers knew for decades that burners could be made that emit less pollution in homes, but they chose not to. That may may be about to change. Sean Gladwell/Getty Images hide caption
Gas stove makers have a pollution solution. They're just not using it
Bobbi Wilson holds her collection of spotted lanternflies as she is honored at the Yale School of Public Health on Jan. 20. Andrew Hurley/Yale University hide caption
Jupiter's moon Io, seen here in the infrared spectrum, courses with volcanic activity. Scientists are learning how the push and pull of gravity heats up this moon. NASA/Getty Images hide caption
From a green comet to cancer-sniffing ants, we break down the science headlines
Yeshnee Naidoo prepares a "flow cell" for analysis by one of the center's many genetic sequencing machines. Tommy Trenchard for NPR hide caption
Who's most likely to save us from the next pandemic? The answer may surprise you
Each year, RSV infections send up to 80,000 kids under 5 to the hospital for emergency treatment. A new antibody treatment could protect the youngest kids — newborns and up infants up to 2 years old. Christoph Soeder/dpa/picture alliance via Getty I hide caption
Computers have been used in rocketry for half-a-century, so it's possible to think that the new AI programs could help. They struggled to grasp the basics. NPR staff generated imagery using Midjourney hide caption
We asked the new AI to do some simple rocket science. It crashed and burned
A researcher releases a bat after taking samples and inserting a microchip into it in Faridpur, Bangladesh. Fatima Tuj Johora for NPR hide caption
Nipah: Using sticks to find a fatal virus with pandemic potential
Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was discovered by astronomers using the wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility in March 2022. Dan Bartlett/NASA hide caption
In this photo provided by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, its members search for a radioactive capsule believed to have fallen off a truck being transported on a freight route on the outskirts of Perth, Australia, on Saturday. AP hide caption
A "mysterious" flying spiral spotted by the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, early on Jan. 18, could be related to a SpaceX satellite launch earlier in the day, scientists speculated. NAOJ & Asahi Shimbun via Storyful/Screenshot by NPR hide caption
A field researcher holds a male bat that was trapped in an overhead net as part of an effort to find out how the animals pass Nipah virus to humans. The animal will be tested for the virus, examined and ultimately released. Fatima Tuj Johora for NPR hide caption
The Nipah virus has a kill rate of 70%. Bats carry it. But how does it jump to humans?
Dr. Yejin Choi University of Washington Professor and MacArthur Fellow, works to improve AI's understanding of common sense. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation hide caption