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Climate

Emissions dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic. The climate impact won’t last

New estimates suggest coronavirus shutdowns cut global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels by nearly 30 percent, on average.

By Jonathan Lambert9 hours ago

ice cube

Physics

A new experiment hints at how hot water can freeze faster than cold

By Emily Conover1 hour ago

Interferon

Health & Medicine

Rogue immune system reactions hint at an early treatment for COVID-19

By Tina Hesman SaeyAugust 6, 2020

Planetary Science

Jupiter’s moons could keep each other warm by raising tidal waves

By Lisa GrossmanAugust 6, 2020

Physics

How understanding nature made the atomic bomb inevitable

By Tom SiegfriedAugust 6, 2020

Animals

How tuatara live so long and can withstand cool weather

By Jake BuehlerAugust 5, 2020

Coronavirus Outbreak

Five big questions about when and how to open schools amid COVID-19

By Bethany BrookshireAugust 4, 2020

Health & Medicine
Rogue immune system reactions hint at an early treatment for COVID-19

By Tina Hesman SaeyAugust 6, 2020
Physics
How understanding nature made the atomic bomb inevitable

By Tom SiegfriedAugust 6, 2020
Animals
How tuatara live so long and can withstand cool weather

By Jake BuehlerAugust 5, 2020
Planetary Science
Jupiter’s moons could keep each other warm by raising tidal waves

By Lisa GrossmanAugust 6, 2020
Animals
Some spiders may spin poisonous webs laced with neurotoxins

By Christie WilcoxAugust 3, 2020
Health & Medicine
Hydroxychloroquine can’t stop COVID-19. It’s time to move on, scientists say

By Tina Hesman SaeyAugust 2, 2020
Planetary Science
NASA’s Perseverance rover will seek signs of past life on Mars

By Lisa GrossmanJuly 28, 2020
Cosmology
‘The End of Everything’ explores the ways the universe could perish

By Emily ConoverAugust 4, 2020

The Coronavirus Outbreak

Janice Brown being released from a hospital in California

Why COVID-19 is both startlingly unique and painfully familiar

As doctors and patients learn more about the wide range of COVID-19 symptoms, the coronavirus is proving both novel and recognizable.

By Aimee CunninghamJuly 2, 2020
Here’s what we’ve learned in six months of COVID-19 — and what we still don’t know
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From the Archives

Monkeys as Therapists

August 1, 1970 Vol. 98 No. #5

Science News Magazine

Cover of the August 1, 2020 issue

August 1, 2020 Vol. 198 No. 2

Featured Media

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Here’s how the periodic table gets new elements

Today’s scientists keep adding to the periodic table. But an element has to earn its spot.

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Here’s how flying snakes stay aloft

Worker spraying disinfectant in a fitness center

COVID-19 case clusters offer lessons and warnings for reopening

diver in underwater Mexican cave

Underwater caves once hosted the Americas’ oldest known ochre mines

illustration of people in the United States

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

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More Stories

Life

Wild bees add about $1.5 billion to yields for just six U.S. crops

By Susan MiliusAugust 4, 2020
Water beetles can live on after being eaten and excreted by a frog

By Jonathan LambertAugust 3, 2020
Bizarre caecilians may be the only amphibians with venomous bites

By Christie WilcoxJuly 3, 2020

Humans

Competitive hot dog eaters may be nearing humans’ max eating speed

By Jonathan LambertJuly 14, 2020
Lidar reveals the oldest and biggest Maya structure yet found

By Bruce BowerJune 3, 2020
The Dead Sea Scrolls contain genetic clues to their origins

By Bruce BowerJune 2, 2020

Climate

Climate change made Siberia’s heat wave at least 600 times more likely

By Carolyn GramlingJuly 15, 2020
4 ways to put the 100-degree Arctic heat record in context

By Carolyn GramlingJuly 1, 2020
A Siberian town hit 100 degrees, setting a new record for the Arctic Circle

By Carolyn GramlingJune 23, 2020

Astronomy

50 years ago, Mauna Kea opened for astronomy. Controversy continues

By Emily ConoverAugust 5, 2020
The star cluster closest to Earth is in its death throes

By Ken CroswellJuly 24, 2020
This is the first picture of a sunlike star with multiple exoplanets

By Lisa GrossmanJuly 22, 2020

Physics

The physics of solar flares could help scientists predict imminent outbursts

By Emily ConoverJuly 30, 2020
A black hole circling a wormhole would emit weird gravitational waves

By Emily ConoverJuly 27, 2020
A giant underground motion sensor in Germany tracks Earth’s wobbles

By Maria TemmingJuly 17, 2020

Health & Medicine

Heavy drinking drove hundreds of thousands of Americans to early graves

By Aimee CunninghamAugust 3, 2020
Hydroxychloroquine can’t stop COVID-19. It’s time to move on, scientists say

By Tina Hesman SaeyAugust 2, 2020
Coronavirus outbreak at a Georgia overnight camp infected over 200 kids and staff

By Erin Garcia de JesusJuly 31, 2020

Earth

COVID-19 lockdowns dramatically reduced seismic noise from humans

By Carolyn GramlingJuly 23, 2020
An asteroid impact, not volcanism, may have made Earth unlivable for dinosaurs

By Megan SeverJuly 17, 2020
Agriculture and fossil fuels are driving record-high methane emissions

By Maria TemmingJuly 14, 2020

Science & Society

College biology textbooks still portray a world of white scientists

By Bethany BrookshireJuly 17, 2020
There’s little evidence showing which police reforms work

By Sujata GuptaJuly 9, 2020
All kinds of outbreaks, from COVID-19 to violence, share the same principles

By Cassandra WillyardJuly 7, 2020