NASA's rover Curiosity crawls up the side of Vera Rubin Ridge on Mars' surface in January 2018. Mount Sharp — a 3-mile-high mountain — can be seen in the distance. MSSS/ NASA/JPL-Caltech hide caption
Joe Palca Joe Palca is a science correspondent for NPR.
Stories By
Joe Palca
As a child on a New York farm, Eben Bayer helped his dad shovel wood chips in the barn. That's where he noticed a stretchy web of fungus that became the basis of his biodegradable packing material. NPR hide caption
Marine biologist Ari Friedlaender tags whales as part of his research on humpback whales in the Antarctic. Alison Stimpert/NMFS PERMIT 808-1735 hide caption
CHIME Pathfinder prototype radio telescope Keith Vanderlinde/Dunlap Institute hide caption
The Chinese lunar lander Chang'e 4 is headed to Aitken Basin, a large impact crater near the moon's south pole, pictured here in blue. The distance from the depths of Aitken Basin to the tops of the highest surrounding peaks is nearly twice the height of Mount Everest, according to NASA. NASA/Goddard hide caption
A cubesat, like this briefcase-sized MarCO, was key to relaying telemetry during the recent InSight mission to Mars. It was the first time this kind of mini-spacecraft had flown into deep space. FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Tianjin, in northern China, is home to Tianjin University, an international research center that recently hired an American to lead its school of pharmaceutical science and technology. He recruits students from all over the world, he says, and the program's classes are taught in English. Prisma Bildagentur/UIG/Getty Images hide caption
China Expands Research Funding, Luring U.S. Scientists And Students
NASA engineers on the flight team celebrate the InSight spacecraft's successful landing on Mars at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., on Monday. Al Seib/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
People who are sensitive to the bitterness of caffeine tend to drink more coffee than others, while people sensitive to bitter flavors like quinine drink less coffee, according to a new study. Dimitri Otis/Getty Images hide caption
An artist's concept portrays a NASA rover exploring the surface of Mars. Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech hide caption
This October 2008 photo shows Mercury during the Messenger spacecraft's second flyby of the planet. The European Space Agency's BepiColombo will take seven years to reach the innermost planet in our solar system. NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington via AP hide caption
A Slow Trip To A Hot Planet: Spacecraft Launches For Mission To Mercury
The orbits of the new extreme dwarf planet 2015 TG387 and its fellow inner Oort Cloud objects 2012 VP113 and Sedna as compared with the rest of the Solar System. 2015 TG387 was nicknamed ͞"The Goblin" by its discoverers, as its provisional designation contains TG and the object was first seen near Halloween. Illustration by Roberto Molar Candanosa and Scott Sheppard, courtesy of Carnegie Institution for Science. hide caption
The people-plaguing Asian tiger mosquito, or Aedes albopictus, typically lays its eggs in stagnant water. James Gathany/AP hide caption