Science News | The latest news from all areas of science

Science News Needs You

seismograph image

Earth

Machine learning helped demystify a California earthquake swarm

Computer algorithms helped scientists find that circulating groundwater probably triggered a four-year-long series of tiny quakes in Southern California.

By Carolyn GramlingJune 18, 2020

Mouse smelling cheese

How to make a mouse smell a smell that doesn’t actually exist

By Laura SandersJune 18, 2020

Worker spraying disinfectant in a fitness center

Health & Medicine

COVID-19 case clusters offer lessons and warnings for reopening

By Helen ThompsonJune 18, 2020

Space

Black hole plasma jets are shaped like bell-bottoms

By Lisa GrossmanJune 18, 2020

Genetics

DNA from a 5,200-year-old Irish tomb hints at ancient royal incest

By Bruce BowerJune 17, 2020

Particle Physics

An unexpected result from a dark matter experiment may signal new particles

By Emily ConoverJune 17, 2020

Health & Medicine

COVID-19 lockdowns helped people get more, but not necessarily better, sleep

By Erin Garcia de JesusJune 16, 2020

Materials Science
Latest claim of turning hydrogen into a metal may be the most solid yet

By Emily ConoverJune 28, 2019
Space
Black hole plasma jets are shaped like bell-bottoms

By Lisa GrossmanJune 18, 2020
Particle Physics
An unexpected result from a dark matter experiment may signal new particles

By Emily ConoverJune 17, 2020
Health & Medicine
COVID-19 case clusters offer lessons and warnings for reopening

By Helen ThompsonJune 18, 2020
Earth
Machine learning helped demystify a California earthquake swarm

By Carolyn GramlingJune 18, 2020
Life
More ‘murder hornets’ are turning up. Here’s what you need to know

By Susan MiliusMay 29, 2020
Genetics
DNA from a 5,200-year-old Irish tomb hints at ancient royal incest

By Bruce BowerJune 17, 2020
Archaeology
First pants worn by horse riders 3,000 years ago

By Bruce BowerMay 30, 2014

The Coronavirus Outbreak

woman smelling a flower

The way the coronavirus messes with smell hints at how it affects the brain

Conflicting reports offer little clarity about whether COVID-19 targets the brain.

By Laura SandersJune 12, 2020
How often do asymptomatic people spread the coronavirus? It’s unclear
Sign up for e-mail updates on the latest coronavirus news and research

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.

Asian small-clawed otter

Why otters ‘juggle’ rocks is still a mystery

illustration of people in the United States

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

mini Mars rover

Wiggling wheels could keep future rovers trucking in loose lunar soil

wok with fried rice

How to make the best fried rice, according to physics

Follow Science News

More Stories

Life

Fossil footprints show some crocodile ancestors walked on two legs

By Carolyn GramlingJune 12, 2020
Scientists want to build a Noah’s Ark for the human microbiome

By Carolyn BeansJune 11, 2020
Fish poop exposes what eats the destructive crown-of-thorns starfish

By Jake BuehlerJune 8, 2020

Humans

Births in the United States have dropped to a 34-year low

By Aimee CunninghamMay 20, 2020
Malaria parasites may have their own circadian rhythms

By Jake BuehlerMay 14, 2020
A gene variant partly explains why Peruvians are among the world’s shortest people

By Tina Hesman SaeyMay 13, 2020

Climate

Rapid sea level rise could drown protective mangrove forests by 2100

By Carolyn GramlingJune 4, 2020
‘Tree Story’ explores what tree rings can tell us about the past

By Carolyn GramlingJune 1, 2020
How more powerful Pacific cyclones may be fueling global warming

By Carolyn GramlingMay 28, 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

The steroid dexamethasone is the first drug shown to reduce COVID-19 deaths

By Tina Hesman SaeyJune 16, 2020
The FDA has canceled emergency use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19

By Tina Hesman SaeyJune 15, 2020
A critically ill COVID-19 patient just got a double lung transplant

By Aimee CunninghamJune 11, 2020

Earth

Smoke from Australian fires rose higher into the ozone layer than ever before

By Maria TemmingJune 15, 2020
50 years ago, scientists were getting a better glimpse inside storms

By Erin Garcia de JesusJune 11, 2020
Chicxulub collision put Earth’s crust in hot water for over a million years

By Carolyn GramlingJune 1, 2020

Science & Society

Real-life scientists inspire these comic book superheroes

By Kyle PlantzJune 14, 2020
Biomedical studies are including more female subjects (finally)

By Bethany BrookshireJune 9, 2020
What the 1960s civil rights protests can teach us about fighting racism today

By Sujata GuptaJune 5, 2020