All Stories
- Climate
Zapping sand to create rock could help curb coastal erosion
Low voltages generated minerals that help bind the sand into erosion-resistant rock, offering hope for shorelines ravaged by waves.
- Health & Medicine
Expanding antibiotic treatment in sub-Saharan Africa could save kids’ lives
Current guidelines limit treatment to infants. Giving antibiotics to at-risk kids under 5, too, has an indirect effect on infant survival, a new trial shows.
- Physics
The world’s fastest microscope makes its debut
Using a laser and an electron beam, the microscope can snap images of moving electrons every 625 quintillionths of a second.
- Earth
‘Turning to Stone’ paints rocks as storytellers and mentors
Part memoir, part geology explainer, Marcia Bjornerud’s latest book explores the hidden wisdom of Earth’s rocks.
- Space
The historic ‘Wow!’ signal may finally have a source. Sorry, it’s not aliens
One of the best possible signs of extraterrestrial communication may have an astrophysical explanation — albeit a weird one.
- Astronomy
The nearest midsized black hole might instead be a horde of lightweights
Astronomers recently reported that the Milky Way star cluster Omega Centauri hosts an elusive type of black hole. A new study says it does not.
- Animals
This spider makes its home in the burrows of extinct giant ground sloths
Caves made by extinct giant ground sloths make the perfect home for a newly discovered type of long-spinneret ground spider from Brazil.
- Animals
This spider uses trapped fireflies to lure in more prey
Male fireflies trapped in the spider’s web flash femalelike lights, possibly luring in other flying males and allowing the arachnid to stock up on food.
- Climate
The world’s record-breaking hot streak has lasted 14 months. When will it end?
Science News spoke with NOAA climatologist Karin Gleason about the ongoing record-breaking streak of record-high global temperatures.
- Chemistry
Old books can have unsafe levels of chromium, but readers’ risk is low
An analysis of a university collection found that the vibrant pigments coating some Victorian-era tomes exceed exposure limits for the heavy metal.
- Paleontology
This spiky fossil shows what early mollusks looked like
The fossil, plus 17 others from more than 500 million years ago, reveal that early mollusks were slug-like creatures with prickly armor.
- Astronomy
A distant quasar may be zapping all galaxies around itself
Star formation has ceased within at least 16 million light-years of the quasar. A similar phenomenon may have fried the Milky Way when it was young.
