Europa probably has an ocean and perhaps extraterrestrial life, but can we afford to visit, or even fly by?
We’re going to Europa! Possibly. (Or maybe going nowhere)
In space, the U.S. and Russia need one another, and geopolitical tensions are far away.
The 2015 request is down $185 million from the enacted 2013 budget.
Genetically engineering and reviving extinct birds: What could go wrong?
Sorting through data, scientists say space telescope has come up with a bumper crop of exoplanets.
In Chile, more than 40 skeletons, mostly of whales, indicate multiple beachings millions of years ago.
The Internet lit up with reports last week that a big rock was on a path to nearly strike Earth.
No, we didn’t almost get slammed by a killer asteroid Monday
An ancient earthquake, the face of Jesus, and the future of journalism.
It’s not yet fusion ignition, but a new experiment gets more energy out of fuel core than went in.
Some simple questions remain unanswered despite years of inquiry by experts.
The problem is not just heroin; it’s pills — prescription opioids found in medicine cabinets across America.
Further tests are pending to determine the precise cause of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman’s death.
Joel Achenbach writes on science and politics for the Post's national desk. He has been a staff writer for The Washington Post since 1990, started the newsroom’s first online column, "Rough Draft," in 1999, and started washingtonpost.com’s first blog, Achenblog, in 2005.
He has been a regular contributor to National Geographic since 1998, writing on such topics as dinosaurs, particle physics, earthquakes, extraterrestrial life, megafauna extinction and the electrical grid. A 1982 graduate of Princeton University, he has taught journalism at Princeton and Georgetown University.
Achenblog collects Joel's musings on politics, science and culture.
Destination Unknown
An occasional series on the future of NASA and space exploration.
- “A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea,” an account of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and its aftermath (2011)
- “The Grand Idea: George Washington’s Potomac and the Race to the West” (2004)
- “Captured By Aliens: The Search for Life and Truth in a Very Large Universe” (1999)