science

less a home is tricked out with security cameras or police can find clear evidence, if a burglar breaks in, there's no way of knowing whodunit. Even if a victim sees the perpetrator and sits down with a sketch artist, memory can be faulty or biased—just ask the countless black men who've "fit the description."

A group of Penn State University researchers have developed a technological solution that uses the one part of us that never lies: DNA. Led by anthropologist Mark Shriver, the research team has created computer software that generates a 3-D facial model. All it needs is something—a hair, a fingernail, or saliva—with your genetic code.

It's a "build your own volcano" kit like no other. A team of geologists in Germany has built a model volcano that crackles with lightning as it erupts. But this is no toy science kit for kids – it could offer insights into the disruption risk to aircraft in the aftermath of an eruption.

The presence of water on Mars is often talked about in the past tense -- as in, billions of years in the past. But researchers have found clues that water could be flowing in the present, at least during warm seasons.

Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology are looking at dark features on Martian slopes that are finger-shaped. They appear and disappear seasonally.

These flows represent the best suggestion we know of that Mars has water right now, scientists say. The study is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.