A truck is a vehicle for carrying goods and materials. The word “truck” possibly derives from the Greek “trochos”, meaning “wheel.” In North America, the big wheels of wagons were called trucks. When the gasoline-engine …

After a banner 2008, clean tech funding took a nasty dive in the first three months of 2009, dropping to under $1 billion, according to two research firms.
Though comparable numbers are not yet available for …

North America’s cradle of civilization can be traced 3,800 years back to the lower Illinois River valley.
It’s there that archaeologists have found evidence of the continent’s first so-called agricultural complex — a set of different …

The brains of patients who’ve received double hand transplants can recreate lost neurological control systems, according to new brain data from a French surgical team.
The doctors extensively analyzed two patients, of the six total who …

1869: Neurosurgery pioneer Harvey Cushing is born. His achievements in medicine and the telling of its history will become legendary.
After undergraduate work at Yale, Cushing entered Harvard Medical School, following his great-grandfather, grandfather, father and …

The Department of Energy’s $3.5 billion laser, designed to simulate the energy of a nuclear explosion, is ready to fire up all of its 192 beams, AP reported Tuesday.
After more than a decade, that included …

A newly-reconstructed deformed fossil skull suggests that our human ancestors probably cared for deformed offspring for years.
The skull indicates that the human to which it belonged about 530,000 years ago would have been severely handicapped …

It’s taken 10 years, but Richard Jenkins has at long last achieved his dream of setting the land speed record for a wind-powered vehicle. The British engineer climbed into the land yacht he calls the …

Electric cars have been getting a lot of buzz lately, but a more immediately viable transportation fuel of the future could be liquid derived from coal. Scientists have devised a new way to transform coal …

For the first time, scientists were able to track an asteroid from space to the ground and recover pieces of it. The bits are unlike anything ever found on Earth.
The asteroid was spotted entering Earth’s …

Alaska’s Redoubt Volcano is erupting explosively for a fifth time since 10:38 p.m. local time Sunday evening (2:38 a.m. Eastern time).
The U.S. Geological Survey’s Alaska Volcano Observatory estimates the initial explosion sent ash up to …

An underwater volcano exploded near Tonga in the South Pacific to stunning effect this week. The pictures of gas and steam erupting out of the surface of the water captivated the world.
Here at Wired Science, …

A new battery material that recharges 100 times faster than the lithium-ion in your laptop has been revealed by researchers at MIT.
The discovery could lead to cellphone-sized batteries that could be charged in 10 seconds.
“The …

Behold the mesmerizing mundanity of space!
NASA has transformed the external camera on the International Space Station into a live webcam — and the view is fascinatingly dull.
For its inaugural morning, the webcam showed a live …

The growing sphere of space junk surrounding the Earth is a hazard to spaceflight, as International Space Station astronauts found out Thursday when their home was buzzed by a five-inch piece of debris.
As the story …

For those of you disappointed to learn that cow tipping is just an urban legend, take heart: you can tell tall tales about how you once demagnetized a cow.
Satellite images of cattle and deer herds …

10. Narcissus

These cheerful yellow and white harbingers of spring, aka daffodils and jonquils, are actually mildly toxic if the bulbs are eaten in large quantities (Narcissus pseudonarcissus is shown).
Some people confuse them for onions. Daffodil …

Peking man—the group of early humans whose 1920s discovery gave a big boost to the theory of evolution—lived hundreds of thousands of years earlier than previously believed, a new study says.
Some researchers believe the discovery …

Rick Simpson and the crew at Evo Design Solutions know a thing or two about speed, having worked on grand-prix motorcycles and Le Mans race cars. Now they’re applying that expertise to a race-ready electric …

While he may not want to suck your blood, the male fish seen above does sport spooky-looking fangs that have earned it the name Danionella dracula.
Researchers at London’s Natural History Museum found several of the …