All Stories
- Science & Society
Do you know how your drinking water is treated?
Editor in Chief Nancy Shute discusses drinking water quality in the United States and the latest research on water treatment technology.
By Nancy Shute - Science & Society
Readers react to the SN 10 and Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Readers expressed their thoughts about the SN 10 scientists, Saturn's hexagons and Jocelyn Bell Burnell.
- Health & Medicine
Don’t spank your kids. Do time-outs and positive talk instead, pediatricians say
A pediatrician group recommends against spanking children — ever — and points instead to positive reinforcement and time-outs to cool off.
- Tech
How Twitter bots get people to spread fake news
Automated bot accounts on Twitter help spread misinformation by strategically encouraging people to make it go viral.
- Archaeology
An exploding meteor may have wiped out ancient Dead Sea communities
An archaeological site not far from the Dead Sea shows signs of sudden, superheated collapse 3,700 years ago.
By Bruce Bower - Particle Physics
Nuclear ‘knots’ could unravel the mysteries of atoms
Skyrmions might help loosen scientific snarls in studies of atomic nuclei.
- Planetary Science
NASA’s Mars 2020 rover will look for ancient life in a former river delta
NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is going to Jezero crater, the site of an ancient river delta that may harbor signs of life.
- Archaeology
A Bronze Age tomb in Israel reveals the earliest known use of vanilla
Residue of the aromatic substance in 3 jugs dates to around 3,600 years ago.
By Bruce Bower - Life
Gut bacteria may guard against diabetes that comes with aging
A friendly microbe in the gut may be the key to staving off insulin resistance, a study in mice finds.
- Animals
Hemp fields offer a late-season pollen source for stressed bees
Colorado’s legal fields of low-THC cannabis can attract a lot of bees.
By Susan Milius - Animals
Wombats are the only animals whose poop is a cube. Here’s how they do it.
The elasticity of wombats’ intestines helps the creatures shape their distinctive poops.
- Health & Medicine
Small doses of peanut protein can turn allergies around
After a year of careful peanut protein exposure, most kids in a clinical trial could tolerate the equivalent of two large peanuts.