Science News | The latest news from all areas of science

a photo of tomatoes in plastic clam shell packages

A chemical in plastics is tied to heart disease deaths

In 2018, over 350,000 excess heart disease deaths were linked to phthalates. More research is needed to fully understand the chemicals' effects.

By Skyler Ware6 seconds ago

mist rises from a forest

Skyborne specks of life may influence rainfall patterns

By Nikk Ogasa2 hours ago

A pink postage stamp with Russian letters, the date 1972, and a blue circular inset highlighting an illustration of a spacecraft.

Space

A Soviet spacecraft has returned to Earth

By Lisa GrossmanMay 5, 2025

A photo of a wild female chimpanzee

Animals

Chimp chatter is a lot more like human language than previously thought

By Jake BuehlerMay 9, 2025

an image of wild horses

Neandertals may have hunted in horse-trapping teams 200,000 years ago

By Bruce BowerMay 9, 2025

This pinkish image that looks a little like a pile of spaghetti is a tangle of the spiral-shaped bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

Health & Medicine

How to fight Lyme may lie in the biology of its disease-causing bacteria

By Leah RosenbaumMay 9, 2025

Three stinky plant flowers that have independently evolved the ability to make the scent of death and dung are shown. On the left, a fly crawls over the small green bell shaped flowers with brown edges of an evergreen shrub Eurya japonica. In the center a large barrel shaped maw of Asarum simile has three large petal-like arm with a red and white ring resembling rows of teeth surrounding a central hole. On the right is Symplocarpus renifolius with a green shoot and a huge red leaf that flops over at the tip and curves to create a cavern from which peeks a spiky, egg-shaped structure.

Plants

Putrid plants can reek of hot rotting flesh with one evolutionary trick

By Tina Hesman SaeyMay 8, 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

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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