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Teacher reads to children

Health & Medicine

Five big questions about when and how to open schools amid COVID-19

Researchers weigh in on how to get children back into classrooms in a low-risk way.

By Bethany Brookshire15 hours ago

Inca ritual offering llama figurine

A submerged Inca offering hints at Lake Titicaca’s sacred role

By Bruce BowerAugust 3, 2020

illustration of the Big Rip

‘The End of Everything’ explores the ways the universe could perish

By Emily Conover21 hours ago

Coronavirus Outbreak

Hydroxychloroquine can’t stop COVID-19. It’s time to move on, scientists say

By Tina Hesman SaeyAugust 2, 2020

Life

Wild bees add about $1.5 billion to yields for just six U.S. crops

By Susan MiliusAugust 4, 2020

Animals

Some spiders may spin poisonous webs laced with neurotoxins

By Christie WilcoxAugust 3, 2020

Life

Water beetles can live on after being eaten and excreted by a frog

By Jonathan LambertAugust 3, 2020

Health & Medicine
Heavy drinking drove hundreds of thousands of Americans to early graves

By Aimee CunninghamAugust 3, 2020
Cosmology
‘The End of Everything’ explores the ways the universe could perish

By Emily Conover21 hours ago
Health & Medicine
Hydroxychloroquine can’t stop COVID-19. It’s time to move on, scientists say

By Tina Hesman SaeyAugust 2, 2020
Life
Water beetles can live on after being eaten and excreted by a frog

By Jonathan LambertAugust 3, 2020
Animals
Some spiders may spin poisonous webs laced with neurotoxins

By Christie WilcoxAugust 3, 2020
Animals
Penguin poop spotted from space ups the tally of emperor penguin colonies

By Carolyn Gramling12 hours ago
Health & Medicine
Five big questions about when and how to open schools amid COVID-19

By Bethany Brookshire15 hours ago
Archaeology
A submerged Inca offering hints at Lake Titicaca’s sacred role

By Bruce BowerAugust 3, 2020

The Coronavirus Outbreak

Janice Brown being released from a hospital in California

Why COVID-19 is both startlingly unique and painfully familiar

As doctors and patients learn more about the wide range of COVID-19 symptoms, the coronavirus is proving both novel and recognizable.

By Aimee CunninghamJuly 2, 2020
Here’s what we’ve learned in six months of COVID-19 — and what we still don’t know
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From the Archives

Monkeys as Therapists

August 1, 1970 Vol. 98 No. #5

Science News Magazine

Cover of the August 1, 2020 issue

August 1, 2020 Vol. 198 No. 2

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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More Stories

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

Competitive hot dog eaters may be nearing humans’ max eating speed

By Jonathan LambertJuly 14, 2020
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

Climate

Climate change made Siberia’s heat wave at least 600 times more likely

By Carolyn GramlingJuly 15, 2020
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

Astronomy

The star cluster closest to Earth is in its death throes

By Ken CroswellJuly 24, 2020
This is the first picture of a sunlike star with multiple exoplanets

By Lisa GrossmanJuly 22, 2020
Pinning down the sun’s birthplace just got more complicated

By Lisa GrossmanJuly 20, 2020

Physics

The physics of solar flares could help scientists predict imminent outbursts

By Emily ConoverJuly 30, 2020
A black hole circling a wormhole would emit weird gravitational waves

By Emily ConoverJuly 27, 2020
A giant underground motion sensor in Germany tracks Earth’s wobbles

By Maria TemmingJuly 17, 2020

Health & Medicine

Heavy drinking drove hundreds of thousands of Americans to early graves

By Aimee CunninghamAugust 3, 2020
Coronavirus outbreak at a Georgia overnight camp infected over 200 kids and staff

By Erin Garcia de JesusJuly 31, 2020
Human sperm don’t swim the way that anyone had thought

By Jack J. LeeJuly 31, 2020

Earth

COVID-19 lockdowns dramatically reduced seismic noise from humans

By Carolyn GramlingJuly 23, 2020
An asteroid impact, not volcanism, may have made Earth unlivable for dinosaurs

By Megan SeverJuly 17, 2020
Agriculture and fossil fuels are driving record-high methane emissions

By Maria TemmingJuly 14, 2020

Science & Society

College biology textbooks still portray a world of white scientists

By Bethany BrookshireJuly 17, 2020
There’s little evidence showing which police reforms work

By Sujata GuptaJuly 9, 2020
All kinds of outbreaks, from COVID-19 to violence, share the same principles

By Cassandra WillyardJuly 7, 2020