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clouds of dust surrounding the red supergiant star Betelgeuse

Astronomy

Betelgeuse went dark, but didn’t go supernova. What happened?

Astronomers are anxious to learn why Betelgeuse, one of the brightest stars in the sky, dimmed dramatically, but didn’t explode, in 2019.

By Lisa GrossmanNovember 29, 2020

M83 galaxy

Space

Runaway stars may create the mysterious ultraviolet glow around some galaxies

By Ken Croswell8 hours ago

Brown dog tick close-up

Life

Dog ticks may get more of a taste for human blood as the climate changes

By Aayushi Pratap10 hours ago

Health & Medicine

Coronavirus shutdowns don’t need to be all or nothing

By Jonathan LambertNovember 25, 2020

Animals

Mineral body armor helps some leaf-cutting ants win fights with bigger kin

By Christie WilcoxNovember 24, 2020

Health & Medicine

The FDA has approved the first drug to treat the rapid-aging disease progeria

By Carolyn WilkeNovember 25, 2020

Animals

A face mask may turn up a male wrinkle-faced bat’s sex appeal

By Susan MiliusNovember 24, 2020

Astronomy
Betelgeuse went dark, but didn’t go supernova. What happened?

By Lisa GrossmanNovember 29, 2020
Anthropology
Ardi and her discoverers shake up hominid evolution in ‘Fossil Men’

By Bruce BowerNovember 18, 2020
Life
Dog ticks may get more of a taste for human blood as the climate changes

By Aayushi Pratap10 hours ago
Health & Medicine
The FDA has approved the first drug to treat the rapid-aging disease progeria

By Carolyn WilkeNovember 25, 2020
Space
Runaway stars may create the mysterious ultraviolet glow around some galaxies

By Ken Croswell8 hours ago
Health & Medicine
Here’s why COVID-19 vaccines like Pfizer’s need to be kept so cold

By Tina Hesman SaeyNovember 20, 2020
Archaeology
The biblical warrior Goliath may not have been so giant after all

By Bruce BowerNovember 23, 2020
Paleontology
The first frog fossil from Antarctica has been found

By Maria TemmingApril 23, 2020

The Coronavirus Pandemic

medical professional wearing a mask working in a tent

Coronavirus cases are skyrocketing. Here’s what it will take to gain control

Basic public health measures can still curb COVID-19, if everyone does their part.

By Jonathan LambertNovember 11, 2020
We still don’t know what COVID-19 immunity means or how long it lasts
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From the Archives

Adjusting to Space

November 21, 1970 Vol. 98 No. #21

Science News Magazine

cover of the November 21, 2020 issue

November 21, 2020 Vol. 198 No. 9

Featured Media

close up of lasers pointed at a target

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

For the first time, scientists have re-created a type of shock wave that occurs in supernovas.

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

photos of three mummified animals

X-rays reveal what ancient animal mummies keep under wraps

Pit viper

Cheap, innovative venom treatments could save tens of thousands of snakebite victims

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More Stories

Life

Monarch caterpillars head-butt each other to fight for scarce food

By Curtis SegarraNovember 19, 2020
An ancient amphibian is the oldest known animal with a slingshot tongue

By Carolyn GramlingNovember 5, 2020
A glowing zebrafish wins the 2020 Nikon Small World photography contest

By Erin Garcia de JesusOctober 13, 2020

Humans

The longest trail of fossilized human footprints hints at a risky Ice Age trek

By Aayushi PratapOctober 26, 2020
Drones find signs of a Native American ‘Great Settlement’ beneath a Kansas pasture

By Bruce BowerSeptember 10, 2020
Puberty can repair the brain’s stress responses after hardship early in life

By Esther LandhuisAugust 28, 2020

Climate

Once hurricanes make landfall, they’re lingering longer and staying stronger

By Carolyn GramlingNovember 11, 2020
By 2100, Greenland will be losing ice at its fastest rate in 12,000 years

By Carolyn GramlingSeptember 30, 2020
Global warming may lead to practically irreversible Antarctic melting

By Carolyn GramlingSeptember 23, 2020

Astronomy

Arecibo Observatory, an ‘icon of Puerto Rican science,’ will be demolished

By Lisa GrossmanNovember 19, 2020
Turning space images into music makes astronomy more accessible

By Maria TemmingOctober 16, 2020
The Milky Way’s most massive star cluster may have eaten a smaller cluster

By Ken CroswellSeptember 29, 2020

Physics

Newton’s groundbreaking Principia may have been more popular than previously thought

By Emily ConoverNovember 23, 2020
Supercooled water has been caught morphing between two forms

By Emily ConoverNovember 19, 2020
LIGO and Virgo’s gravitational wave tally more than quadrupled in six months

By Emily ConoverOctober 28, 2020

Health & Medicine

Immunity to COVID-19 may persist six months or more

By Erin Garcia de JesusNovember 24, 2020
Oxford and AstraZeneca say their COVID-19 vaccine works too

By Tina Hesman SaeyNovember 23, 2020
Here’s why COVID-19 vaccines like Pfizer’s need to be kept so cold

By Tina Hesman SaeyNovember 20, 2020

Earth

50 years ago, scientists named Earth’s magnetic field as a suspect in extinctions

By Jonathan LambertNovember 19, 2020
Technology and natural hazards clash to create ‘natech’ disasters

By Megan SeverNovember 13, 2020
STEVE may be even less like typical auroras than scientists thought

By Maria TemmingNovember 12, 2020

Science & Society

These are science’s Top 10 erroneous results

By Tom SiegfriedNovember 10, 2020
‘Great Adaptations’ unravels mysteries of amazing animal abilities

By Erin Garcia de JesusOctober 12, 2020
Easy interventions like revamping forms help people show up to court

By Sujata GuptaOctober 8, 2020