Ask most people to identify a creative person, and they’ll probably describe an artist — Picasso, Shakespeare or even Lady Gaga. But what about a Nobel prize–winning chemist? Or a team of engineers that figures out how to make a car engine operate more efficiently? Creativity, it turns out, is not only the domain of painters, singers and playwrights, says Robert DeHaan, a retired Emory University cell biologist who now studies how to teach creative thinking. “Creativity is the creation of an idea or object that is both novel and useful,” he explains. “Creativity is a new idea tha...

Slicing through the water at speeds exceeding 45 miles per hour (72 kph), the shortfin mako shark is one of the fastest fish in the sea. A team of Harvard biologists has made a surprising discovery about what feature gives the mako, like all other sharks, its incredible swiftness — its sandpapery skin. Visit the new Science News for Kids website and read the full story: Speedy sharkskin

As temperatures drop and days grow shorter, middle and high school students across the country begin gearing up for science fair season. While these competitions typically take place in the spring, the qualifying projects can take several weeks or even months to plan, carry out and summarize. That means late fall and early winter are an ideal time for students to start brainstorming project ideas.    But science fair planning can overwhelm many students. Some become intimidated at the prospect of designing a project that’s never been done before. For others, this event may be thei...

Guests checking into the posh Palomar Hotel in Washington, D.C., recently, might have been surprised to hear pounding footsteps, shrieks and laughter pouring out of a conference room late one evening. And they would have been even more surprised to see what was behind those doors: 30 of the nation’s top middle school science students, flushed and sweaty, playing dodgeball, riding piggyback on their parents and squirting one another with water bottles. The students were finalists in the first Broadcom Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars — or MASTERS — chal...

On a chilly, rainy October morning in Washington, D.C., two middle school students from Hawaii sat shivering on a tour bus as they waited to depart for a photo shoot at the U.S. Capitol. “I don’t know how people live here,” said Jordan Kamimura, 14, of Hilo, Hawaii, through chattering teeth.  But the temperatures proved no deterrent for the participation by these and 28 other finalists in the inaugural Broadcom Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars — or MASTERS — competition. The three-day contest tapped some of the nation’s top middle school sci...

Drugs called antidepressants find their way into lakes and streams, affecting the behavior of fish living there in unexpected ways.

A surprising new study shows that female elephants in the wild might live up to three times longer than those born in zoos.

An electronic nose sniffs out unique chemicals that plants emit when attacked by pests.

Scientists discover fossils of a creature that had both fish and land animal features.

New information from space missions suggests the rings surrounding Saturn may be older and have more mass than scientists thought.