Researchers have discovered what is either the heaviest known neutron star, or the lightest black hole. When the most massive stars die, they collapse under their own gravity and leave behind black holes; when stars that are a bit less massive die, they explode in supernovas and leave behind dense, dead remnants of stars called neutron stars...

Like a scene out of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” a virus infects a host and converts it into a factory for making more copies of itself. Now researchers have shown that a large group of viruses, including the influenza viruses and other serious pathogens, steal genetic signals from their hosts to expand their own genomes.

This finding is presented in a study published online today and in print June 25 in Cell...

A new lithium-based electrolyte invented by Stanford University scientists could pave the way for the next generation of battery-powered electric vehicles.

In a study published June 22 in Nature Energy, Stanford researchers demonstrate how their novel electrolyte design boosts the performance of lithium metal batteries, a promising technology for powering electric vehicles, laptops and other devices.

“Most electric cars run on lithium-ion batteries, which are rapidly approaching their theoretical limit on energy density,” said study co-author Yi Cui, professor of materials science and engineering and of photon science at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory...

A new study suggests that Pluto and other large Kuiper belt objects started out with liquid oceans which have been slowly freezing over time. The accretion of new material during Pluto’s formation may have generated enough heat to create a liquid ocean that has persisted beneath an icy crust to the present day, despite the dwarf planet’s orbit far from the sun in the cold outer reaches of the solar system.

This “hot start” scenario, presented in a paper published June 22 in Nature Geoscience, contrasts with the traditiona...