Science Matters

From Earth’s poles to black holes, NSF stories about transforming the world through science.

Displaying 1 - 10 of 209

a boat in a body of water with a mountain background

From collecting cores, braving blizzards and measuring microbes, students do it all

September 5, 2024

Collecting cores In September 2023, Ryan Thigpen, Mike McGlue, their students and a team of coring experts anchored a platform in the middle of Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park and extracted…

NSF 101: EPSCoR Graduate Fellowship Program

August 19, 2024

You've likely heard of the U.S.

Illustrated image showing a young Vera Rubin looking through a telescope, the Vera C Rubin observatory in the background, and surrounded by dark matter and stars.

NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory will capture the unseen cosmos: Dark matter, dark energy and millions of exploding stars

August 7, 2024

About 95% of the so-called known universe is a total mystery. We have no clue what it is except that it's weirdly different from any sort of matter or energy humans actually know anything about.

Researchers study Lahaina wildfires effects on coral reef health

July 18, 2024

In August 2023, a combination of drought, hurricane winds and low humidity generated an unprecedented fire in Lahaina, a coastal city on the island of Maui, Hawaii.

An illustration depicting the layers of the ocean by depth: sunlit, twilight, midnight, abyssal and hadal.

Dive into research on world's ocean

June 25, 2024

As you dig your toes into the warm sand and watch waves crash into each other on a coastal beach, you might stop to wonder, what lives in the ocean?…

Mobile video game submerges users into ocean depths

June 20, 2024

Exploring most of the world's oceans is technologically challenging, however, researchers are making progress and collecting more data about oceans than ever before.

Bees, birds, butterflies, bats: NSF helping keep pollinators, bioeconomy healthy

June 18, 2024

What did you have for breakfast this morning? Bananas? Berries? Honey? Coffee?…

Concepts in quantum materials and computing: From dreams toward use

May 6, 2024

You likely have never heard a student exclaim at a school career day, "I want to go into quantum science!" But like the advances in computer science over the past 75 years that have made computers…

A citizen science program taught Girl Scouts to conduct research and tackle problems in their communities.

5 ways to make citizen science a year-round passion

May 1, 2024

Less than a decade ago, SciStarter launched Citizen Science Day, which is dedicated to increasing awareness of citizen science and connecting volunteers to scientific projects in which they can…

5 NSF projects transforming how researchers understand plastic waste

April 22, 2024

Plastic is everywhere. Humans produce so much plastic that we end up throwing away about 400 million tons of plastic-related trash every year.