In May, NASA scientists announced that the space-based Kepler telescope that has been scouring the sky for habitable worlds was in trouble. Part of the mechanism used to position the telescope had failed. Scientists were quick to praise the mission and note that even if it were over, they had more than enough data to analyze. The latest discovery from the data beamed back by Kepler came Wednesday, with the detection of two planets smaller than Neptune orbiting stars in a cluster about 3,000 light-years away. Read full story

It’s only a matter of time before the data pipes that connect us to our social networks, work e-mail, and the Internet's vast repository of useful and useless information fill up. It could be five years, it could be 15, but our boundless appetite for bandwidth-consuming apps, streaming video, and other data will soon clog up current fiber optic cables. Read full story

Next time you watch a baseball game, cast your mind back a few million years. A man steps back, cocks his arm behind his shoulder, then twists. His arm swings forward like a catapult, unleashing the fastest rotation in the human body. Is it a pitcher’s windup, or an echo of a pivotal moment in evolution? Read full story

It’s become an increasingly common pattern in cancer treatment: a drug targeted to the specific genetic mutation that drives a cancer has an astonishing result, melting the tumor away. Months later, it begins to grow back. Patients move on to the next drug, if there is one. Read full story

We tend to think of transparency as a good thing: knowledge is power, the old adage goes. But is transparency always best? A team of researchers from Boston University and the Harvard Kennedy School think that transparency needs to be studied, to figure out how and when it is most effective -- and when it can backfire. Read full story

Look up this weekend to see a “supermoon,” the full moon at its closest approach in 2013. Read full story

Wildly popular videos of TED Talks have helped create a growing class of public intellectuals, whose influence is elevated beyond the ivory tower by presenting their ideas in highly-palatable, entertaining 18-minute presentations. The format would seem to be a model for the dissemination of scientific ideas. A group of researchers from Canada, the United Kingdom, and Indiana decided to study the impact of the talks and found that TED stardom does not help build professors’ academic stature among colleagues, according to a new study published in PLOS ONE. Read full story

After the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that genes cannot be patented, invalidating portions of patents that Myriad Genetics held on genetic mutations that increase risk for breast and ovarian cancer, several companies said that they plan to offer genetic tests to compete with Myriad's. Read full story

When scientists vie for limited federal funding to support their research, they know their proposals will be evaluated based on scientific merits, but other factors come into play, too: a few years ago, the National Institutes of Health asked reviewers to evaluate the overall impact and significance of the work being proposed. Read full story

The US Supreme Court unanimously decided Thursday that human genes cannot be patented, in a landmark decision that is seen as a major win for researchers and patients, who have argued that allowing patents on human genes impedes research and harms patients’ ability to find out their risk for disease. Companies, on the other hand, have argued that upholding a challenge to such patents could irrevocably harm the foundation of the biotechnology industry. Read full story