How Close Are We?

No one knows for sure what black holes look like, and artists make their images based on what physicists think. However, that could all be about to change.

Current drug therapies mean it's possible to live a normal life span with HIV, but that's expensive and not a long-term solution. We explore how close we could be to an HIV vaccine and a cure.

Bringing extinct animals back to life sounds like science fiction, but gene-editing techniques are making it possible.

Growing human body parts in labs sounds like a myth, but scientists are making it a reality.

Fusion energy might be the safe, efficient, reliable and clean energy source that could save our planet. We explore how close we are to a world where fusion energy is powering our homes.

Downloading your brain may seem like science fiction, but some neuroscientists think it's not only possible, but that we've already started down a path to one day make it a reality.

We know about apes learning sign language, but what about dolphins typing on an underwater keyboard, or A.I. machines translating prairie dog chirps? We want to answer how close we are to conversing with the animal kingdom.

We've mapped other planets to more detail than we have our own oceans, so we explore how close we are to a complete ocean map.

Flying at hypersonic speed could revolutionize transportation, but there are incredible engineering and logistical challenges we need to get through first.

For decades pop culture has been teasing us with lunar colonies, military bases, space hotels and more, but in order to populate the moon, or other planets, we may need to start small.

Planets, stars and everything else we can see in space only make up 5 percent of the mass of the universe. The other 95 percent is a mystery. Part of that is dark matter, which teams all over the world have been working tirelessly to figure it out.