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autonomous underwater vehicle Ran amid floating ice

Climate

A trek under Thwaites Glacier’s ice shelf reveals specific risks of warm water

An underwater autonomous craft collected the first data on the chemistry of seawater eroding the icy underbelly of Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier.

By Carolyn GramlingApril 9, 2021

dwarf galaxy HSC J1631+4426

A record-breaking, oxygen-starved galaxy may be full of gigantic stars’ shrapnel

By Ken CroswellApril 9, 2021

black and white image of Calder Hall power plant smokestacks

Particle Physics

How matter’s hidden complexity unleashed the power of nuclear physics

By Emily ConoverApril 8, 2021

Ancient humans may have had apelike brains even after leaving Africa

By Charles ChoiApril 8, 2021

Health & Medicine

AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine is tied to uncommon blood clots in rare cases

By Erin Garcia de JesúsApril 7, 2021

Particle Physics

Muon magnetism could hint at a breakdown of physics’ standard model

By Emily ConoverApril 7, 2021

Genetics

Europe’s oldest known humans mated with Neandertals surprisingly often

By Bruce BowerApril 7, 2021

Health & Medicine
Frog skin cells turned themselves into living machines

By Laura SandersMarch 31, 2021
Humans
New depictions of ancient hominids aim to overcome artistic biases

By Tina Hesman SaeyApril 5, 2021
Genetics
Europe’s oldest known humans mated with Neandertals surprisingly often

By Bruce BowerApril 7, 2021
Anthropology
Ancient humans may have had apelike brains even after leaving Africa

By Charles ChoiApril 8, 2021
Astronomy
A record-breaking, oxygen-starved galaxy may be full of gigantic stars’ shrapnel

By Ken CroswellApril 9, 2021
Psychology
People add by default even when subtraction makes more sense

By Sujata GuptaApril 7, 2021
Climate
A trek under Thwaites Glacier’s ice shelf reveals specific risks of warm water

By Carolyn GramlingApril 9, 2021
Particle Physics
Muon magnetism could hint at a breakdown of physics’ standard model

By Emily ConoverApril 7, 2021

The Coronavirus Pandemic

Baré person getting Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine

Here’s what makes 4 promising COVID-19 vaccines unique — and potentially useful

More vaccines still in the works are exploring a variety of approaches, including pills and electrical zaps.

By Tina Hesman SaeyMarch 23, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic is now a year old. What have scientists learned?
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From the Archives

first page of the first issue of Science News Bulletin

Science News Bulletin

April 2, 1921 No. 1

Science News Magazine

cover of the April 10, 2021 issue

April 10, 2021 Vol. 199 No. 7

Featured Media

crested rats

Rats with poisonous hairdos live surprisingly sociable private lives

Deadly, swaggering rodents purr and snuggle when they’re with mates and young.

illustration of gravitational wave events

Explore every gravitational wave event spotted so far

close up of lasers pointed at a target

Giant lasers help re-create supernovas’ explosive, mysterious physics

image of a sea butterfly on a black background

Sea butterflies’ shells determine how the snails swim

Ogre-faced spider

Ogre-faced spiders catch insects out of the air using sound instead of sight

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More Stories

Life

Yawning helps lions synchronize their groups’ movements

By Jake BuehlerApril 6, 2021
Flamboyant fishes evolved an explosion of color as seas rose and fell

By Jake BuehlerApril 1, 2021
These are the 5 costliest invasive species, causing billions in damages

By Jonathan LambertMarch 31, 2021

Humans

New depictions of ancient hominids aim to overcome artistic biases

By Tina Hesman SaeyApril 5, 2021
Ancient humans may have deliberately voyaged to Japan’s Ryukyu Islands

By Charles ChoiDecember 3, 2020
The longest trail of fossilized human footprints hints at a risky Ice Age trek

By Aayushi PratapOctober 26, 2020

Climate

Ship exhaust studies overestimate cooling from pollution-altered clouds

By Carolyn GramlingFebruary 1, 2021
How much will Africa capitalize on cheap renewable energy as its power grid grows?

By Carolyn GramlingJanuary 25, 2021
‘The New Climate War’ exposes tactics of climate change ‘inactivists’

By Carolyn GramlingJanuary 15, 2021

Astronomy

Here’s why humans chose particular groups of stars as constellations

By Emily ConoverMarch 29, 2021
The ‘USS Jellyfish’ emits strange radio waves from a distant galaxy cluster

By Ken CroswellMarch 26, 2021
A new black hole image reveals the behemoth’s magnetic fields

By Maria TemmingMarch 24, 2021

Physics

Newly made laser-cooled antimatter could test foundations of modern physics

By Maria TemmingApril 5, 2021
Uranium ‘snowflakes’ could set off thermonuclear explosions of dead stars

By Emily ConoverMarch 30, 2021
Atomic clocks take a step toward redefining the second

By Emily ConoverMarch 24, 2021

Health & Medicine

4 takeaways from the WHO’s report on the origins of the coronavirus

By Erin Garcia de JesúsApril 1, 2021
Pfizer says its COVID-19 vaccine has 100 percent efficacy in young people

By Erin Garcia de JesúsMarch 31, 2021
Frog skin cells turned themselves into living machines

By Laura SandersMarch 31, 2021

Earth

A spike in Arctic lightning strikes may be linked to climate change

By Maria TemmingApril 6, 2021
Phosphorus for Earth’s earliest life may have been forged by lightning

By Maria TemmingMarch 16, 2021
To understand how ‘night-shining’ clouds form, scientists made one themselves

By Maria TemmingMarch 5, 2021

Science & Society

We’ve covered science for 100 years. Here’s how it has — and hasn’t — changed

By Tom SiegfriedApril 2, 2021
Parents in Western countries report the highest levels of burnout

By Sujata GuptaMarch 29, 2021
How perceptions of diversity vary by race and political views

By Sujata GuptaMarch 12, 2021