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Mystery Solved

On Jupiter, lightning flashes from storms swirling at the poles

After almost 40 years, scientists have discovered that Jupiter has lightning that is similar to lightning on Earth — it just happens in a different place.

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Wild Things

Madagascar’s predators are probably vulnerable to toxic toads

By Sarah Zielinski

10 hours ago

Science Ticker

The Large Hadron Collider is getting an upgrade

By Emily Conover

4 days ago

Science Ticker

Opportunity rover waits out a huge dust storm on Mars

By Lisa Grossman

1 week ago

News

Phone apps are helping scientists track suicidal thoughts in real time

Researchers are using smartphones to tap into the ups and downs of suicidal thinking that occur over hours and days, hoping to help prevent suicides.

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To combat an expanding universe, aliens could hoard stars

An advanced alien civilization might combat the impact of dark energy by harvesting stars.

Feature

Special report: Genetic testing goes mainstream

Consumer genetic tests may not tell customers that much about themselves. Science News delves into these tests in a multipart series.

News

Venus’ thick atmosphere speeds up the planet’s spin

Venus’ thick atmosphere can push on mountains on the surface, changing its rotation period by a few minutes every day.

Feature

DNA testing can bring families together, but gives mixed answers on ethnicity

DNA testing has become a new way for millions of Americans to expand their family trees and learn something about themselves, but results vary widely.

News

The most ancient African baobabs are dying and no one knows why

Scientists aren’t sure what’s killing the oldest African baobabs, nine of which have lost big chunks or died in the last 13 years.

Feature

In her short life, mathematician Emmy Noether changed the face of physics

A century after she published a groundbreaking mathematical theory, Emmy Noether gets her due.

News

Magnetic fields may be propping up the Pillars of Creation

Scientists made a map of the magnetic field within the Pillars of Creation, a star-forming area depicted in an iconic Hubble Space Telescope image.

50 Years Ago

In 1968, scientists thought they were close to detecting gravity waves

Despite an unverified discovery in 1968, spacetime ripples remained elusive for nearly 50 years.

Science Stats

Leaf-cutter ants pick up the pace when they sense rain

Leaf-cutter ants struggle to carry wet leaves, so they run to avoid rain.

News

The number of teens who report having sex is down

About 40 percent of high school students are having sex, the lowest amount in the last three decades.

News

world map of submarine fiber-optic cables

Underwater fiber-optic cables could moonlight as earthquake sensors

The seafloor cables that ferry internet traffic across oceans may soon find another use: detecting underwater earthquakes.

News in Brief

artist's illustration of an infant planet

Swirling gases reveal baby planets in a young star’s disk

A new technique pinpointed three planets forming around a young star about 330 light-years from Earth.

Introducing

These newfound frogs have been trapped in amber for 99 million years

Trapped in amber, 99-million-year-old frog fossils reveal the amphibians lived in a wet, tropical climate.

Experiences

What I actually learned about my family after trying 5 DNA ancestry tests

Ancestry results vary widely depending on which company you use.

News in Brief

The Mars rover Opportunity is sleeping, not dead, NASA says

Opportunity is hunkered down in a deep sleep on Mars to ride out what’s looking to be a long dark dust storm.

News

Here’s what narwhals sound like underwater

Scientists eavesdropped while narwhals clicked and buzzed. The work could help pinpoint how the whales may react to more human noise in the Arctic.

News

Antarctica has lost about 3 trillion metric tons of ice since 1992

Antarctica’s rate of ice loss has sped up since 1992 — mostly in the last five years, raising global sea level by almost 8 millimeters on average.

News in Brief

This heavy element has a football-shaped atomic nucleus

Three nobelium isotopes have oblong nuclei, and some sport a ‘bubble’ center.

News

Sunshine is making Deepwater Horizon oil stick around

Sunlight created oxygen-rich oil by-products that are still hanging around eight years after the Deepwater Horizon spill.

News in Brief

A new AI can focus on one voice in a crowd

The artificial intelligence can ignore background noise in videos and focus on what a particular person is saying.

News

The sun shrinks a teensy bit when it’s feeling active

The radius of the sun gets slightly smaller during periods of high solar activity, researchers say.

News

Kids with food allergies are twice as likely to have autism

Children with food allergies are more likely to have autism than kids without, a study finds. But that doesn’t mean a child will develop the disorder.

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On Jupiter, lightning flashes from storms swirling at the poles

Science News Blogs

Phone apps are helping scientists track suicidal thoughts in real time

To combat an expanding universe, aliens could hoard stars

Special report: Genetic testing goes mainstream

Venus’ thick atmosphere speeds up the planet’s spin

DNA testing can bring families together, but gives mixed answers on ethnicity

The most ancient African baobabs are dying and no one knows why

In her short life, mathematician Emmy Noether changed the face of physics

Magnetic fields may be propping up the Pillars of Creation

In 1968, scientists thought they were close to detecting gravity waves

Leaf-cutter ants pick up the pace when they sense rain

The number of teens who report having sex is down

Underwater fiber-optic cables could moonlight as earthquake sensors

Swirling gases reveal baby planets in a young star’s disk

These newfound frogs have been trapped in amber for 99 million years

What I actually learned about my family after trying 5 DNA ancestry tests

The Mars rover Opportunity is sleeping, not dead, NASA says

Here’s what narwhals sound like underwater

Antarctica has lost about 3 trillion metric tons of ice since 1992

This heavy element has a football-shaped atomic nucleus

Sunshine is making Deepwater Horizon oil stick around

A new AI can focus on one voice in a crowd

The sun shrinks a teensy bit when it’s feeling active

Kids with food allergies are twice as likely to have autism

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