Science Friday

Astronaut Don Pettit has taken hundreds of thousands of photos from the International Space Station. Plus, how at the beginning of the 20th century, a team of female astronomers at the Harvard College Observatory worked to classify the stars.

The best science books of 2016. Plus, updates on Cassini and Juno, and a cold, hard look at how winter boots fare in icy conditions.

Time travel, microbes, black holes, and polar bears.

Most animals’ DNA shortens with age, but scientists are studying an animal that increases its genetic strands as it grows older—the dormouse.

Boots made for extreme winter weather may be easily succumb to an icy sidewalk.

A look at the science—and art—of preserving dead animals through taxidermy. Plus, tips on obtaining your personal medical records, and tracking the rhythms of the microbiome.

An annual awards ceremony honors scientific research that first makes you laugh, but then makes you think.

Outside of Mr. McGregor’s garden and in her own life, Beatrix Potter–author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit–had a curious eye for the nature world around her. Plus an alternate history of New York City architecture lives on in Never Built New York.

The science behind roasting a browner bird and sweetening sweet potatoes. Plus, how would real scientists achieve mutual understanding with an alien race?

We answer your questions about the cold virus, and introduce you to the viruses you have to thank for that stuffy nose.