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woman sewing masks

Health & Medicine

Face mask shortages have sparked creative solutions. Will they work?

Homemade masks, reusing masks and even scuba gear are some of the ideas for dealing with health care workers’ lack of supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

By Laura Sanders24 hours ago

Coronavirus blood samples

Health & Medicine

How antibody tests work and could help fight the coronavirus

By Dawn Fallik17 hours ago

Pluto

Planetary Science

If Pluto has a subsurface ocean, it may be old and deep

By Lisa GrossmanMarch 27, 2020

Health & Medicine

There’s no evidence the coronavirus jumped from pangolins to people

By Erin Garcia de JesusMarch 26, 2020

Neandertals’ extensive seafood menu rivals that of ancient humans

By Bruce BowerMarch 26, 2020

Space

A controversial X-ray glow didn’t show up in the Milky Way’s dark matter halo

By Lisa GrossmanMarch 26, 2020

Coronavirus Outbreak

No, the coronavirus wasn’t made in a lab. A genetic analysis shows it’s from nature

By Tina Hesman SaeyMarch 26, 2020

Genetics
No, the coronavirus wasn’t made in a lab. A genetic analysis shows it’s from nature

By Tina Hesman SaeyMarch 26, 2020
Health & Medicine
When will the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing end?

By Jonathan LambertMarch 24, 2020
Health & Medicine
Coronavirus is most contagious before and during the first week of symptoms

By Tina Hesman SaeyMarch 13, 2020
Health & Medicine
Face mask shortages have sparked creative solutions. Will they work?

By Laura Sanders24 hours ago
Health & Medicine
How antibody tests work and could help fight the coronavirus

By Dawn Fallik17 hours ago
Health & Medicine
There’s no evidence the coronavirus jumped from pangolins to people

By Erin Garcia de JesusMarch 26, 2020
Planetary Science
If Pluto has a subsurface ocean, it may be old and deep

By Lisa GrossmanMarch 27, 2020
Space
Astronomers have found the edge of the Milky Way at last

By Ken CroswellMarch 23, 2020

2019 Novel Coronavirus Pandemic

kids washing their hands

How parents and kids can stay safe and sane during the coronavirus pandemic

Infectious disease experts weigh in on playdates, playgrounds and other parenting questions.

By Laura SandersMarch 19, 2020
Why some heart patients may be especially vulnerable to COVID-19
HIV drugs didn’t work as a coronavirus treatment in a clinical trial

From the Archives

Studying a Killer

March 21, 1970 Vol. 97 No. #12

Science News Magazine

March 28, 2020 cover

March 28, 2020 Vol. 197 No. 6

Featured Media

How thin, delicate butterfly wings keep from overheating

Structures in butterfly wings help living tissues such as veins release more heat than the rest of the wing.

green glow in the night sky - an aurora named the "dunes"

Here are 5 of the weirdest auroras, including the newly spotted ‘dunes’

How bacteria create flower art

Plasma on solar surface

These are the most detailed images of the sun ever taken

PigeonBot

‘PigeonBot’ is the first robot that can bend its wings like a real bird

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More Stories

Life

A new book captures how genetics fills in the story of life’s evolution

By Sid PerkinsMarch 20, 2020
This is the first deep-sea fish known to be a mouthbreeder

By Jake BuehlerMarch 10, 2020
A distant cousin of jellyfish may survive without working mitochondria

By Jonathan LambertFebruary 24, 2020

Humans

Evolving an arch across the foot’s width helped hominids walk upright

By Erin Garcia de JesusFebruary 26, 2020
The earliest known hominid interbreeding occurred 700,000 years ago

By Bruce BowerFebruary 20, 2020
Some West Africans may have genes from an ancient ‘ghost’ hominid

By Bruce BowerFebruary 12, 2020

Climate

How Hurricane Maria’s heavy rains devastated Puerto Rico’s forests

By Maria TemmingMarch 17, 2020
Australia’s wildfires have now been linked to climate change

By Carolyn GramlingMarch 4, 2020
Ordering from a local store can curb online shopping’s CO₂ emissions

By Maria TemmingFebruary 26, 2020

Astronomy

The star Betelgeuse might just be dusty, not about to explode

By Lisa GrossmanMarch 12, 2020
Heavy metal may rain from the skies of planet WASP 76b

By Maria TemmingMarch 11, 2020
Molecular oxygen has been spotted beyond the Milky Way for the first time

By Ken CroswellFebruary 18, 2020

Physics

New telescopes could help spot ‘photon ring’ of the first black hole ever imaged

By Emily ConoverMarch 18, 2020
How slime mold helped scientists map out the cosmic web

By Emily ConoverMarch 17, 2020
Even a weird hypernucleus confirms a fundamental symmetry of nature

By Emily ConoverMarch 9, 2020

Health & Medicine

You can help fight the coronavirus. All you need is a computer

By Maria TemmingMarch 25, 2020
When will the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing end?

By Jonathan LambertMarch 24, 2020
Here’s where bacteria live on your tongue cells

By Erin Garcia de JesusMarch 24, 2020

Earth

Tiny meteorites suggest ancient Earth had a carbon dioxide–rich atmosphere

By Carolyn GramlingJanuary 29, 2020
Fed by human-caused erosion, many river deltas are growing

By Carolyn GramlingJanuary 22, 2020
A 2.2-billion-year-old crater is Earth’s oldest recorded meteorite impact

By Erin Garcia de JesusJanuary 21, 2020

Science & Society

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

By Betsy LadyzhetsMarch 12, 2020
New electrodes can better capture brain waves of people with natural hair

By Laura SandersMarch 11, 2020
To fight discrimination, the U.S. census needs a different race question

By Sujata GuptaMarch 8, 2020