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Earth

A new book reveals stories of ancient life written in North America’s rocks

In ‘How the Mountains Grew,’ John Dvorak probes the interlinked geology and biology buried within the rocks of North America.

By Alka Tripathy-Lang57 mins ago

simulation of a black hole's magnetic field

Physics

Black holes born with magnetic fields quickly shed them

By Emily Conover3 hours ago

satellite image of Santorini

Earth

Greece’s Santorini volcano erupts more often when sea level drops

By Maria Temming22 hours ago

Animals

A hammerhead shark baby boom near Florida hints at a historic nursery

By Lesley Evans OgdenAugust 2, 2021

A super-short gamma-ray burst defies astronomers’ expectations

By Maria TemmingAugust 2, 2021

Health & Medicine

New delta variant studies show the pandemic is far from over

By Tina Hesman SaeyJuly 30, 2021

Animals

Viruses can kill wasp larvae that grow inside infected caterpillars

By Erin Garcia de JesúsJuly 29, 2021

Animals
A hammerhead shark baby boom near Florida hints at a historic nursery

By Lesley Evans OgdenAugust 2, 2021
Health & Medicine
New delta variant studies show the pandemic is far from over

By Tina Hesman SaeyJuly 30, 2021
Earth
Greece’s Santorini volcano erupts more often when sea level drops

By Maria Temming22 hours ago
Astronomy
A super-short gamma-ray burst defies astronomers’ expectations

By Maria TemmingAugust 2, 2021
Earth
An enormous supervolcano may be hiding under Alaskan islands

By Beth GeigerDecember 7, 2020
Animals
Polar bears sometimes bludgeon walruses to death with stones or ice

By Gloria DickieJuly 29, 2021
Physics
Black holes born with magnetic fields quickly shed them

By Emily Conover3 hours ago
Earth
Dinosaur-killing asteroid may have made Earth’s largest ripple marks

By Nikk OgasaJuly 29, 2021

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The Coronavirus Pandemic

cars lined up at a COVID-19 rapid testing site

Why it’s still so hard to find treatments for early COVID-19

Small studies, unexpected side effects and incomplete information about how drugs work can stymie clinical trials for drugs that can treat COVID-19.

By Tina Hesman SaeyJuly 27, 2021
One mutation may have set the coronavirus up to become a global menace
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From the Archives

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Science News Bulletin

April 2, 1921 No. 1

Science News Magazine

cover of the July 31, 2021 issue of Science News

July 31, 2021 Vol. 200 No. 2

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.

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

scores of small silver fish swimming

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

Monica Quintana wears a mask and face shield and dons a gown in a hospital hallway

The surge in U.S. coronavirus cases shows a shift in who’s getting sick

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More Stories

Life

If confirmed, tubes in 890-million-year-old rock may be the oldest animal fossils

By Jake BuehlerJuly 28, 2021
Near-invincible tardigrades may see only in black and white

By Erin Garcia de JesúsJuly 28, 2021
‘Wild Souls’ explores what we owe animals in a human-dominated world

By Jonathan LambertJuly 26, 2021

Humans

Only a tiny fraction of our DNA is uniquely human

By Tina Hesman SaeyJuly 16, 2021
‘The Joy of Sweat’ will help you make peace with perspiration

By Bethany BrookshireJuly 13, 2021
How wielding lamps and torches shed new light on Stone Age cave art

By Jaime ChambersJuly 6, 2021

Climate

A stunning visualization of Alaska’s Yukon Delta shows a land in transition

By Carolyn GramlingJuly 26, 2021
Hurricanes may not be becoming more frequent, but they’re still more dangerous

By Carolyn GramlingJuly 13, 2021
The first step in using trees to slow climate change: Protect the trees we have

By Susan MiliusJuly 13, 2021

Astronomy

The tiny dot in this image may be the first look at exomoons in the making

By Maria TemmingJuly 28, 2021
The latest picture of a black hole captures Centaurus A’s massive jets

By Maria TemmingJuly 19, 2021
A shadowy birthplace may explain Jupiter’s strange chemistry

By Ken CroswellJuly 6, 2021

Physics

With Steven Weinberg’s death, physics loses a titan

By Tom SiegfriedJuly 24, 2021
An atomic clock that could revolutionize space travel just passed its first test

By Maria TemmingJune 30, 2021
Dark matter may slow the rotation of the Milky Way’s central bar of stars

By Emily ConoverJune 25, 2021

Health & Medicine

Why the CDC says it’s crucial to start wearing masks indoors again

By Tina Hesman SaeyJuly 27, 2021
What experts know so far about COVID-19 boosters for immunocompromised people

By Erin Garcia de JesúsJuly 23, 2021
The coronavirus cuts cells’ hairlike cilia, which may help it invade the lungs

By Erin Garcia de JesúsJuly 22, 2021

Earth

Dinosaur-killing asteroid may have made Earth’s largest ripple marks

By Nikk OgasaJuly 29, 2021
Mixing trees and crops can help both farmers and the climate

By Jonathan LambertJuly 14, 2021
Satellites show how a massive lake in Antarctica vanished in days

By Carolyn GramlingJuly 12, 2021

Science & Society

What 20th century science fiction got right and wrong about the future of babies

By Robin Marantz HenigJuly 15, 2021
How science overlooks Asian Americans

By Sujata GuptaJuly 12, 2021
The gap in parenting time between middle- and working-class moms has shrunk

By Sujata GuptaJuly 9, 2021