Scientists have been working to find a safe, non-addictive pain killer to help fight the current opioid crisis in this country.

Some scientists have suggested we need to protect half of Earth's surface to preserve most of its species. A new study, however, cautions that it's the quality, not merely the quantity, of land we protect that matters. To preserve biodiversity more fully, especially species with small ranges, governments should expand their conservation focus and prioritize key habitats outside wildernesses and current protected areas. The study identifies where some of the most urgent conservation gaps occur.

Scientists have discovered a new way to organize odor molecules based on how often they occur together in nature, and to map this data to discover regions of odor combinations humans find most pleasurable.

New mathematical models can help guide changes to the layout of poor urban neighborhoods to improve access to resources with minimum disruption and cost.

Fiordland penguins, Eudyptes pachyrhynchus, known as Tawaki, migrate up to 2,500 km from their breeding site, according to a new study.

While speediness is a priority for any animal trying to escape a predator or avoid a fall, a new study suggests that even the fastest reflexes among all animals are remarkably slow.

Scientists are using artificial intelligence technology to analyzed a database of earthquakes from around the world in an effort to predict where aftershocks might occur. Using deep learning algorithms, they developed a system that, while still imprecise, was able to forecast aftershocks significantly better than random assignment.

Immersing city dwellers in the traditional lifestyle and diet of a rainforest village for two weeks increases the diversity of the visiting children's — but not the adults' — gut microbiota. In a small pilot study, researchers show that the immersion visit did little to shift the adults' skin, oral, nasal and fecal microbiota.

Compared with the rest of the animal kingdom, mammals have the biggest brains and produce some of the smallest litters of offspring. A newly described fossil of an extinct mammal relative — and her 38 babies — is among the best evidence that a key development in the evolution of mammals was trading brood power for brain power.

Ancient animal herders added to the ecological richness and diversity of the African savanna thousands of years ago — an effect that persists to the present day, a new study finds. The herders' practice of penning their cattle, goats and sheep at night created nutrient-rich grassy glades that still attract wildlife and have increased habitat diversity in the region, researchers report.