As you wait in line to ship Christmas presents to far-flung family, mulling over questions of whether the FedEx insurance is a good value, and if fake or real Christmas trees are better for the environment, you might find yourself wondering, is any of this worth it? Why am I here? What happens if I die? What is the meaning of life?

When you’re out hiking in the Grand Canyon, you never know what you might see. You could cross paths with lizards, tarantulas or maybe even something bigger like a javelina. More likely, you’ll also come across the tracks of these critters.

Researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas say the 20 nearby protoplanetary disks observed in the study suggest there may be a greater number of large, young planets in our galaxy than previously expected.

Astronomers used the powerful ALMA telescope to discover that in other parts of the Milky Way Galaxy there is potentially a large population of young planets -- similar in mass to Neptune or Jupiter -- at wide-orbit that are not detectable by other current planet searching techniques.

Astronomers have cataloged nearly 4,000 exoplanets in orbit around distant stars. Though the discovery of these newfound worlds has taught us much, there is still a great deal we do not know about the birth of planets and the precise cosmic recipes that spawn the wide array of planetary bodies we have already uncovered, including so-called hot Jupiters, massive rocky worlds, icy dwarf planets, and - hopefully someday soon - distant analogs of Earth.

The City of Las Vegas, along with the Health Sciences Department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is assessing older homes for hazardous lead.

The City of Las Vegas is partnering with the University of Nevada Las Vegas to assess lead hazards in older homes.

Fossilized reptile prints older than any dinosaur were recently discovered in the Grand Canyon.

When you’re out hiking, you never know what you might see. You could cross paths with lizards, tarantulas or maybe even something bigger like a javelina. More likely, you’ll also come across the tracks of these critters.

Professor Matt Lachniet spends hours looking for clues. This Thursday, he shows us samples in his laboratory of stalagmites from Nevada caves. Some are thousands of years old, pointing to a time when this desert was actually hotter and drier, which coincides with a time when the oceans we now call the Pacific and the Arctic were warmer.

November 30, 2018, is a day many Alaskans will never forget. At 8:30 Friday morning 7.0 magnitude earthquake rattled Anchorage, Alaska and the surrounding region.

The latest national climate assessment captures the future impacts of a warming planet more completely than reports that have come before it, UNLV geology professor Matt Lachniet says.