Science News | The latest news from all areas of science

An illustration of a green Martian aurora in the sky over the Perseverance rover.

Space

Perseverance takes the first picture of a visible Martian aurora

A faint yet visible Martian aurora is the first instance of the phenomenon spotted from another planet's surface.

By Nikk Ogasa2 hours ago

An image of the Archaeopteryx fossil under ultraviolet light.

This exquisite Archaeopteryx fossil reveals how flight took off in birds

By Carolyn Gramling5 hours ago

A doctor wipes an alcohol pad on a child's shoulder to prep them for a vaccine.

Health & Medicine

HHS says new vaccines should be tested against placebos. They already are

By McKenzie Prillaman7 hours ago

An image of two chimps with one taking care of another's arm injury

Animals

Wild chimpanzees give first aid to each other

By Martin J. Kernan16 hours ago

An image showing a yellow leaf on an otherwise leafless tree branch with a blue sky background

Plants

A leaf’s geometry determines whether it falls far from its tree

By Bethany BrookshireMay 13, 2025

A large humanoid figure covered in rough fungus runs through a crowd of people during a snow storm in a scene from The Last of Us. In the real world, antifungal treatments combat fungi.

Health & Medicine

Humans have shockingly few ways to treat fungal infections

By Tina Hesman SaeyMay 13, 2025

A spiderlike assassin bug holds a just-caught bee as it perches at the top of a waxy tube that functions as an entrance to a beehive. A handful of small bees climb in and around it.

Animals

This tool-wielding assassin turns its prey’s defenses into a trap

By Siddhant PusdekarMay 12, 2025

We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

Spotlight on Health

An image of the National Institutes of Health

$1.8 billion in NIH grant cuts hit minority health research the hardest

News of NIH funding cuts have trickled out in recent months. A new study tallies what’s been terminated.

By Sujata GuptaMay 8, 2025
How to fight Lyme may lie in the biology of its disease-causing bacteria
Teens who want to quit vaping have another medication option

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Conversations with Maya: Anna-Katrina Shedletsky

This article has been paid for and developed by Society for Science.

Science News Magazine

Cover of Science News' May 2025 issue featuring a Spinosaurus on the cover

May 1, 2025 Vol. 207 No. 5

Featured Media

An image of the National Institutes of Health

$1.8 billion in NIH grant cuts hit minority health research the hardest

News of NIH funding cuts have trickled out in recent months. A new study tallies what’s been terminated.

A Yangtze finless porpoise looking towards the camera through the glass in a dolphinarium at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Ancient poems document the decline of the Yangtze finless porpoise

A black and white photograph from a low angle of a chess board with pieces set up for play. White chess pieces are on the left side of the board, while black pieces are on the right. In the center, a white pawn faces a black pawn.

Chess players rely on familiar moves even when the game changes

a hand reaches down into an illuminated screen displaying a 3-D graphic of a car

A new 3-D display lets you reach in and touch virtual objects

Six caterpillar cases covered in spikey body parts of insects and spiders.

This caterpillar wears the body parts of insect prey

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More Stories

Life

Gila monsters may struggle to survive climate change

By Jake BuehlerApril 4, 2025
Dark coats may have helped the earliest mammals hide from hungry dinosaurs

By Jake BuehlerMarch 13, 2025
A new book chronicles the science of life in the air

By Andrea TamayoFebruary 25, 2025

Humans

Ancient horse hunts challenge ideas of ‘modern’ human behavior

By Bruce BowerApril 18, 2025
Biological sex is not as simple as male or female

By Tina Hesman SaeyFebruary 20, 2025
How child soldiers heal after the trauma of war

By Elizabeth QuillJanuary 10, 2025

Climate

Losing a key U.S. climate report would hurt future disaster prep

By Carolyn GramlingMay 2, 2025
Wetland bacteria could make more methane in a warming world

By Carolyn GramlingApril 23, 2025
Earth’s landmasses lost trillions of tons of water this century

By Carolyn GramlingApril 21, 2025

Astronomy

A gas cloud 5,500 times as massive as the sun lurks nearby

By Mara Johnson-GrohMay 2, 2025
A gas clump in the Milky Way’s neighborhood might be a ‘dark galaxy’

By Mara Johnson-GrohApril 18, 2025
A claimed hint of alien life whips up spirited debate

By Lisa GrossmanApril 17, 2025

Physics

Physicists explain how cheese rosettes form

By Emily ConoverMay 6, 2025
Here’s how we might generate electricity from rain

By Jude ColemanApril 29, 2025
Imitation dark matter axions have arrived. They could reveal the real thing

By Emily ConoverApril 16, 2025

Health & Medicine

Do cold-water plunges really speed post-workout muscle recovery?

By Laura SandersMay 7, 2025
Lining medical stents with hairlike fuzz could fend off infections

By McKenzie PrillamanMay 6, 2025
A man let snakes bite him 202 times. His blood helped create a new antivenom

By Meghan RosenMay 2, 2025

Earth

The United States’ oldest known rock has existed for at least 3.6 billion years

By Evan HowellApril 25, 2025
The ozone layer shields life on Earth. We’ll soon lose a key way to monitor its health

By Nikk OgasaApril 4, 2025
More details about the Myanmar earthquake are emerging

By Carolyn GramlingApril 1, 2025

Science & Society

Federal cuts put help for mental health and drug addiction in peril

By Laura SandersApril 14, 2025
‘Pseudoscience’ digs into the allure and dangers of believing fake science

By Sibani RamApril 14, 2025
5 years after COVID-19 became a pandemic, are we ready for what’s next?

By McKenzie PrillamanMarch 10, 2025