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Health & Medicine

A COVID-19 vaccine may come soon. Will the blistering pace backfire?

Speed is essential, but not at the expense of safety and efficacy, experts warn. Sacrificing either could damage public trust.

By Tina Hesman SaeyJuly 10, 2020

immune suppressor cells

Health & Medicine

These cells slow an immune response. Derailing them could help fight tumors

By Esther LandhuisJuly 10, 2020

Three women running

Boosting a liver protein may mimic the brain benefits of exercise

By Laura SandersJuly 9, 2020

Science & Society

There’s little evidence showing which police reforms work

By Sujata GuptaJuly 9, 2020

Physics

Physicists have ‘braided’ strange quasiparticles called anyons

By Emily ConoverJuly 9, 2020

Genetics

South Americans may have traveled to Polynesia 800 years ago

By Bruce BowerJuly 8, 2020

COVID-19: The first six months

Why COVID-19 is both startlingly unique and painfully familiar

By Aimee CunninghamJuly 2, 2020

Health & Medicine
A COVID-19 vaccine may come soon. Will the blistering pace backfire?

By Tina Hesman SaeyJuly 10, 2020
Space
Astronomers have found the edge of the Milky Way at last

By Ken CroswellMarch 23, 2020
Animals
Calculating a dog’s age in human years is harder than you think

By Bethany BrookshireJuly 8, 2020
Space
This is the most comprehensive X-ray map of the sky ever made

By Maria TemmingJuly 8, 2020
Life
More ‘murder hornets’ are turning up. Here’s what you need to know

By Susan MiliusMay 29, 2020
Health & Medicine
Why scientists say wearing masks shouldn’t be controversial

By Tina Hesman SaeyJune 26, 2020
Health & Medicine
What you need to know about the airborne transmission of COVID-19

By Jonathan LambertJuly 7, 2020
Health & Medicine
Here’s what we’ve learned in six months of COVID-19 — and what we still don’t know

By Erin Garcia de JesusJune 30, 2020

The Coronavirus Outbreak

people sitting at distanced tables in a restaurant

Here’s what we’ve learned in six months of COVID-19 — and what we still don’t know

Six months into the new coronavirus pandemic, researchers have raced to uncover crucial information about SARS-CoV-2. But much is still unknown.

By Erin Garcia de JesusJune 30, 2020
Why scientists say wearing masks shouldn’t be controversial
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From the Archives

Into the Eye of a Storm

June 27, 1970 Vol. 97 No. #26

Science News Magazine

cover of June 20, 2020 issue

June 20, 2020 Vol. 197 No. 11

Featured Media

Element character illustration

Here’s how the periodic table gets new elements

Today’s scientists keep adding to the periodic table. But an element has to earn its spot.

Paradise tree snake

Here’s how flying snakes stay aloft

Worker spraying disinfectant in a fitness center

COVID-19 case clusters offer lessons and warnings for reopening

diver in underwater Mexican cave

Underwater caves once hosted the Americas’ oldest known ochre mines

illustration of people in the United States

How the U.S. census has measured race over 230 years

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Life

Bizarre caecilians may be the only amphibians with venomous bites

By Christie WilcoxJuly 3, 2020
Fish eggs can hatch after being eaten and pooped out by ducks

By Carolyn WilkeJune 29, 2020
Fossil footprints show some crocodile ancestors walked on two legs

By Carolyn GramlingJune 12, 2020

Humans

Lidar reveals the oldest and biggest Maya structure yet found

By Bruce BowerJune 3, 2020
The Dead Sea Scrolls contain genetic clues to their origins

By Bruce BowerJune 2, 2020
Births in the United States have dropped to a 34-year low

By Aimee CunninghamMay 20, 2020

Climate

4 ways to put the 100-degree Arctic heat record in context

By Carolyn GramlingJuly 1, 2020
A Siberian town hit 100 degrees, setting a new record for the Arctic Circle

By Carolyn GramlingJune 23, 2020
Rapid sea level rise could drown protective mangrove forests by 2100

By Carolyn GramlingJune 4, 2020

Astronomy

The oldest disk galaxy yet found formed more than 12 billion years ago

By Lisa GrossmanMay 20, 2020
The sun is less magnetically active than similar stars, and we don’t know why

By Lisa GrossmanApril 30, 2020
A century ago, astronomy’s Great Debate foreshadowed today’s view of the universe

By Tom SiegfriedApril 24, 2020

Physics

A new device can produce electricity using shadows

By Carolyn WilkeJune 3, 2020
A star shredded by a black hole may have spit out an extremely energetic neutrino

By Emily ConoverMay 26, 2020
Physicists have found a way to foil a classic oobleck science trick

By Emily ConoverMay 8, 2020

Health & Medicine

What you need to know about the airborne transmission of COVID-19

By Jonathan LambertJuly 7, 2020
How making a COVID-19 vaccine confronts thorny ethical issues

By Bethany BrookshireJuly 7, 2020
4 reasons not to worry about that ‘new’ swine flu in the news

By Erin Garcia de JesusJuly 2, 2020

Earth

Earth’s annual e-waste could grow to 75 million metric tons by 2030

By Carolyn GramlingJuly 2, 2020
Two lightning megaflashes shattered distance and duration records

By Carolyn GramlingJune 25, 2020
Machine learning helped demystify a California earthquake swarm

By Carolyn GramlingJune 18, 2020

Science & Society

All kinds of outbreaks, from COVID-19 to violence, share the same principles

By Cassandra WillyardJuly 7, 2020
The U.S. largely wasted time bought by COVID-19 lockdowns. Now what?

By Jonathan LambertJuly 1, 2020
Real-life scientists inspire these comic book superheroes

By Kyle PlantzJune 14, 2020