Although Mercury is much closer to Earth than even Mars, it's among the most difficult planets to study with space probes due in part to its proximity to the sun. A spacecraft launching next year will endure Mercury's extreme temperatures and gravitational complications to study this mysterious planet.

What can Earth's magnetic field teach us about our planet's past?

Radioisotopes have been successfully used to treat a number of cancers, and they're still used today safely as well. But the unethical use of radioisotopes also left a black mark in the history of medicine.

The new primetime TV show based on the Manhattan Project of WWII has drawn praise for its storytelling and scientific accuracy but also some critiques of its historical accuracy.

When professional scientists have hit road blocks, they've recruited citizen volunteers to help unlock scientific mysteries ranging from the cosmos to the microscopic.

On March 13, 1989, millions plunged into darkness after a hot ball of plasma knocked out power grids in North America. Nowadays, several physicists are closely investigating the potentially dangerous solar wind.

Scientists around the world are trying to catch some waves, some gravitational waves. Find out what these warps in space-time are, the ways to find them and how we could use them to "listen" to the movements of black holes and neutron stars.

How do scientists study the Earth's core without directly accessing it? And how does the Earth's formation influence a potential flip in its magnetic field?

Isaac Asimov dreamed of an almost night-less world with six suns around it in his short story titled Nightfall. So could such an exoplanet exist in the real world, and, if so, how would we ever find it?

China's rocket to the moon, particle discoveries at the LHC, the physics behind the feel of a city, and several more stories roundup this month in physics news.

Is the universe infinite? Or is it confined to a finite amount of space? And how might the shape of the universe inform our answers to these deep questions?

Note: We Originally published this podcast on July 24, 2013. In the fictional world of Westeros, the duration and severity of the seasons are entirely unpredictable. Is there a real planet that has a similar seasonal pattern?

We sat down with science writer Simon Singh to discuss his latest book, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets, which reveals the many math-related Easter eggs hidden throughout the iconic show's 25-year history.

The age of water on Earth, neutrinos in the heart of the sun, and spintronic flashlights round up this month in physics news.

The Ig Nobel Prizes reward the best research that first makes you laugh then makes you think. This year, we interviewed the winners who had research topics ranging from the the alignment of dogs with the Earth's magnetic field when they poo to the correlation between cat bites and depression in humans.

Earth and Venus share a number of striking similarities, so why is one planet a bastion for life while the other is inhospitable. Are the planets' differences solely due to their relative distances to the sun? Planets found outside our solar system may provide new evidence to answer that question.

You'll often find helium in balloons, but it's also a vital gas for physics research, medical devices, and computer manufacturing. But legislation and economic pressures have had and will continue to have an enormous impact on this precious gas.

Scientists have capitalized on two mind-boggling quantum mechanics principles to achieve the seemingly impossible: illuminating an object using light that never interacted directly with the object.

Speckled asteroids, spacecraft on comets, and an atomic clock on the International Space Station roundup this month in physics news.

Before Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson, there was Dr. Research and Mr. sun, characters from the hugely influential Bell Laboratory Science Series.

Looking for a one-way trip out of our galaxy? Hitch a ride on a hypervelocity star if you're looking to escape our galaxy's gravity. Listen in this week to see how these super-speedy stars come to be.

We sat down with Youtube star and "Flame Challenge" winner Diana Cowern to discuss her sometimes wacky but always enlightening physics outreach videos.

Our latest trip to Comic-Con International revealed a number of physics-inspired comic books in addition to our own Spectra series.

The blackest material ever invented, solar-powered spacecraft, and the crushing environments inside gas giants round up this month in physics news.

Hundreds of thousands of people were connected to the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bombs. Now you can hear a few of their unique perspectives as they reflect on this hugely significant project.