The Latest Breaking News from the National Science Foundation

Look closely at your mobile phone or tablet. Touch-screen technology, speech recognition, digital sound recording and the internet were all developed using funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Graduate students interested in an academic career after graduation day have often been told they need to be open to moving somewhere they may not want to live. This advice is because of how hard it is to get a tenure-track professor position.

It might seem surprising, but federal research funding isn’t just for scientists. A component of many federal grants that support basic research requires that discoveries be shared with nonscientists. This component, referred to as “broader impacts” by the National Science Foundation, can make a big difference for K-12 students and…

With the National Science Foundation urging its employees to resign or retire, American innovation is on the line.

It is late at night, and we are silently watching a bat in a roost through a night-vision camera. From a nearby speaker comes a long, rattling trill.

The National Science Foundation's Dark Energy Camera reveals a stunning glimpse into the 'dark nebula' known as the Circinus West molecular cloud, a region of space that's so dense with gas that light can't escape it.

Last year was a record year for disasters in the United States. A new report from the British charity International Institute for Environment and Development finds that 90 disasters were declared nationwide in 2024, from wildfires in California to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina.

Morningside Park, a beloved neighborhood park in Miami with sweeping views of Biscayne Bay, will soon pilot an innovative approach to coastal resilience.

The 2025 Los Angeles wildfires reduced more than 15,000 structures to ash in a matter of days. Among the devastation were 11 public and private schools and 30 child care facilities. In all, the fires disrupted the education and daily lives of over 700,000 students.

After climbing for decades, the percentage of Americans with no religion has leveled off. For the past few years, the share of adults who identify as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” has stood at about 29%, according to a major study the Pew Research Center released Feb. 26, 2025.

Ever since the United States government’s unfulfilled promise of giving every newly freed Black American “40 acres and a mule” after the Civil War, descendants of the enslaved have repeatedly proposed the idea of redistributing land to redress the nation’s legacies of slavery.