On Oct. 3, 1950, three scientists at Bell Labs in New Jersey received a U.S. patent for what would become one of the most important inventions of the 20th century — the transistor. John Bardeen, ...

“Imagine that the earth has been watched over the aeons by an extremely patient extraterrestrial observer. Nothing, save a little hydrogen and helium, leaves the planet. And then, less than 20 years ...

“A lightning flash lasts only a few tenths of a second. Why does the resulting sound persist for half a minute or even longer? A typical lightning discharge consists of three strokes through a channel ...

At a small local chapter meeting of a professional society, Gordon Moore's talk laid out the rudiments of what would become "Moore's law", which would govern the electronics industry for a half ...

India’s efforts to build diverse science archives are hindered by a lack of trained professionals, long-term positions, and relevant academic programmes, science historians and archivists say.They ...

Science historians have a new resource they can tap to better understand the early days of molecular biology. The nonprofit Science History Institute (SHI) this week added a collection known as the ...

Advances in fields such as spectrometry and gene sequencing are unleashing torrents of new data about the ancient world – and could offer answers to questions we never even knew to ask Scythians did ...

The test subject that produced the first 3D magnetic resonance image was quiet and a bit hairy. Tough on the outside, the patient was a big softie at heart. It was also not human. Nobel Prize-winning ...

An exhibit at Philadelphia's Science History Institute looks at food science through the lens of the school lunch program. (Emma Lee/WHYY) From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, ...

Synthetic dyes made fashion more vivid, like this hot pink miniskirt suit, designed by Ben Zuckerman in 1964. (Emma Lee/WHYY) From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would ...