Charles Q. Choi is a science reporter in New York who has written for Scientific American, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Science, and Nature, among others. In his spare time, he has traveled to all seven continents, earned the rank of yondan in the Toyama-ryu battodo school of Japanese swordsmanship, and has had science fiction appear in Analog magazine.
Controlled chaos may be the key to unlimited clean energy
Small doses of instability could eventually bring us a new source of clean power.
Saturn's rings were once a moon ripped apart by bizarre forces
Resonance with not-so-near Neptune destabilized the moon 100 million years ago.
Astronomers find a shocking culprit that shaped Earth's continents
Sure, asteroids did some of the work. But a few came from the fringes of our Solar System.
This revolutionary new technology pulls clean fuel from the air
If all goes well, it could create sustainable energy anywhere on Earth.
This 31,000-year-old fossil may reveal the world's oldest amputation
Scientists may have discovered evidence of the earliest known use of surgery
Scientists just bypassed millions of years’ worth of evolution in mice
But they don’t have mutant-making in mind.
Physicists discover a mind-bending puzzle about protons at the quantum level
Quarks can sneak in and give protons a little extra heft now and then.
This breakthrough stem-cell therapy could reverse genetic blindness
An answer has long evaded scientists — until now.
3D analysis reveals a key similarity between dinosaur and bird embryos
It's all in the hips.
This groundbreaking new battery could help solve our e-waste problem
Just add water to power your device.
Humans were drinking milk long before they could easily digest it
Why lactose tolerance evolved is still somewhat of a mystery.
Trap-jaw ants are so powerful they should implode — scientists finally uncovered their secret
The insects evolved special jaws to prevent the animals from destroying themselves.
Mammals’ ears reveal the surprising evolution of warm-bloodedness
This trait was likely key in the spread of mammals and birds across the globe.
35 years ago, a star exploded — now, the Webb Telescope could explain why
Astrophysicists hope to learn more about supernovas by analyzing the aftermaths of their explosions.
30 years after its discovery, astronomers realize first confirmed exoplanet is truly rare
Worlds circling pulsars are a cosmic rarity, according to a new study.
Protofeathers may have helped dinosaurs survive freezing weather and dominate the world
Why dinosaurs thrived when their competitors died during the Jurassic’s mass extinction has long been a mystery.
Were dinosaurs warm or cold-blooded? Scientists might finally have an answer
Paleontologists have long argued over whether dinosaurs were warm-blooded or cold-blooded.
Origin of Life: Scientists may have found a missing link between the primordial world and modern life
How the chemistry of life moved beyond the RNA world isn’t fully understood.
These galaxies have no dark matter — and astronomers may finally know why
A galaxy 65 million light years away holds secrets to an ancient traffic jam, which may have kicked out dark matter in the process.
45 years later, scientists hone in on a mysterious alien signal's origin
A new study finds a few possible sources for the Wow! Signal, detected in 1977.