All Stories
- Health & Medicine
How 5 universities tried to handle COVID-19 on campus
U.S. colleges opened in the fall with a patchwork of control measures to keep COVID-19 at bay.
- Planetary Science
Watch real video of Perseverance’s Mars landing
NASA’s Perseverance rover filmed its own landing on Mars. Here’s that video.
- Genetics
The first human genetic blueprint just turned 20. What’s next?
The Human Genome Project led to many medical advances. Deciphering 3 million African genomes and using new tech to fill gaps could lead to even more.
- Astronomy
Signs of a hidden Planet Nine in the solar system may not hold up
Hints of a remote planet relied on clumped up orbits of bodies beyond Neptune. A new study suggests that clumping is an illusion.
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When a naked mole-rat meets a sneaky sea worm
Editor in chief Nancy Shute discusses how stories make it into the news section of Science News magazine.
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- Earth
Color-coded radar maps reveal a patchwork of California wildfire destruction
A composite made up of fine-scale vegetation maps from different years lets researchers track the story of plant loss and regrowth around Los Angeles.
- Earth
A magnetic field reversal 42,000 years ago may have contributed to mass extinctions
The weakening of Earth's magnetic field beginning around 42,000 years ago correlates with a cascade of environmental crises, scientists say.
- Astronomy
The first black hole ever discovered is more massive than previously thought
New observations of Cygnus X-1 are leading astronomers to rethink what they know about stars that turn into black holes.
- Health & Medicine
The U.K. approved the world’s first COVID-19 human challenge trial
Dozens of young, healthy volunteers will be deliberately exposed to the coronavirus to find out how much virus it takes to get someone sick.
- Health & Medicine
The COVID-19 death toll sent U.S. life expectancy plunging in 2020
Estimates show that American’s overall life expectancy declined by a year, but for Black Americans, the drop was almost three years.
- Health & Medicine
Some Neandertal genes in people today may protect against severe COVID-19
Neandertal DNA on chromosome 12 may affect genes involved in a biochemical chain reaction that ends with the destruction of viral RNA.
