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image of a pair of albatrosses with cliffside and ocean in the distance

Life

Albatrosses divorce more often when ocean waters warm

In one part of the Falkland Islands, up to 8 percent of the famously faithful birds ditch partners in years when the ocean is warmer than average.

By Richard KemenyNovember 23, 2021

Two people painting an oil barrel green

50 years ago, corporate greenwashing was well under way

By Mike DenisonNovember 24, 2021

image of the milky way galaxy

Astronomers have found the Milky Way’s first known ‘feather’

By Lisa GrossmanNovember 23, 2021

Space

A space rock called Kamoʻoalewa may be a piece of the moon

By Maria TemmingNovember 22, 2021

Quantum Physics

Scientists finally detected a quantum effect that blocks atoms from scattering light

By Emily ConoverNovember 22, 2021

Climate

A new map shows where carbon needs to stay in nature to avoid climate disaster

By Jonathan LambertNovember 18, 2021

Climate

How climate change may shape the world in the centuries to come

By Carolyn GramlingNovember 19, 2021

Astronomy
Astronomers have found the Milky Way’s first known ‘feather’

By Lisa GrossmanNovember 23, 2021
Quantum Physics
Scientists finally detected a quantum effect that blocks atoms from scattering light

By Emily ConoverNovember 22, 2021
Health & Medicine
How to choose a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot

By Tina Hesman SaeyNovember 8, 2021
Space
A space rock called Kamoʻoalewa may be a piece of the moon

By Maria TemmingNovember 22, 2021
Life
Albatrosses divorce more often when ocean waters warm

By Richard KemenyNovember 23, 2021
Climate
How climate change may shape the world in the centuries to come

By Carolyn GramlingNovember 19, 2021
Artificial Intelligence
Linking sense of touch to facial movement inches robots toward ‘feeling’ pain

By Laura SandersFebruary 16, 2020
Anthropology
‘The Dawn of Everything’ rewrites 40,000 years of human history

By Bruce BowerNovember 9, 2021

Century of Science from ScienceNews

Explore major advances across the sciences that have transformed our understanding of the world and our universe, and our lives.

Explore Century of Science

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The Coronavirus Pandemic

vials of covid-19 vaccines

How to choose a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot

To help you choose between the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 boosters, one reporter looked to the evidence and consulted experts.

By Tina Hesman SaeyNovember 8, 2021
No, COVID-19 vaccines won’t make you infertile
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From the Archives

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Science News Bulletin

April 2, 1921 No. 1

Science News Magazine

Cover of 11/20/21 issue of Science News

November 20, 2021 Vol. 200 No. 9

Featured Media

telescope image of a star cluster, which is surrounded by a blue haze

How do scientists calculate the age of a star?

There are a few different methods to determine the age of a star, but none are perfect.

a fox squirrel in a tree

Squirrels use parkour tricks when leaping from branch to branch

an elephant takes a drink from a lake

Newly recognized tricks help elephants suck up huge amounts of water

illustration of a black hole merging with a neutron star

Gravitational waves reveal the first known mergers of a black hole and neutron star

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Tiny crystals give a plain fish twinkling, colorful dots under light

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More Stories

Life

‘Life as We Made It’ charts the past and future of genetic tinkering

By Jaime ChambersNovember 16, 2021
Some songbirds now migrate east to west. Climate change may play a role

By Jake BuehlerNovember 9, 2021
Gene-edited stem cells help geckos regrow more perfect tails

By Freda KreierNovember 1, 2021

Humans

Ancient human visitors complicate the Falkland Islands wolf’s origin story

By Jaime ChambersOctober 27, 2021
Fossils and ancient DNA paint a vibrant picture of human origins

By Erin WaymanSeptember 15, 2021
Only a tiny fraction of our DNA is uniquely human

By Tina Hesman SaeyJuly 16, 2021

Climate

Earth will warm 2.7 degrees Celsius based on current pledges to cut emissions

By Carolyn GramlingOctober 26, 2021
2020 babies may suffer up to seven times as many extreme heat waves as 1960s kids

By Carolyn GramlingOctober 1, 2021
‘Ice Rivers’ invites you to get to know our world’s melting glaciers

By Carolyn GramlingSeptember 24, 2021

Astronomy

How massive stars in binary systems turn into carbon factories

By Ken CroswellNovember 18, 2021
Distant rocky planets may have exotic chemical makeups that don’t resemble Earth’s

By Ken CroswellNovember 16, 2021
Astronomers may have spotted the first known exoplanet in another galaxy

By Lisa GrossmanOctober 25, 2021

Physics

New high-speed video reveals the physics of a finger snap

By Emily ConoverNovember 16, 2021
Neutron star collisions probably make more gold than other cosmic smashups

By Emily ConoverNovember 3, 2021
Here’s the physics of why ducklings swim in a row behind their mother

By Emily ConoverOctober 20, 2021

Health & Medicine

What parents need to know about Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11

By Aimee CunninghamOctober 29, 2021
The antidepressant fluvoxamine can keep COVID-19 patients out of the hospital

By Esther LandhuisOctober 27, 2021
Epidemics have happened before and they’ll happen again. What will we remember?

By Aimee CunninghamOctober 27, 2021

Earth

Scientists are racing to save the Last Ice Area, an Arctic Noah’s Ark

By Freda KreierNovember 15, 2021
A mineral found in a diamond’s flaws contains the source of some of Earth’s heat

By Carolyn GramlingNovember 11, 2021
Earth’s lower atmosphere is rising due to climate change

By Freda KreierNovember 5, 2021

Science & Society

How missing data makes it harder to measure racial bias in policing

By Sujata GuptaNovember 17, 2021
Methods of getting results from real-world experiments win 2021 economics Nobel

By Bruce BowerOctober 11, 2021
How our SN 10 scientists have responded to tumultuous times

By Science News StaffOctober 7, 2021