All Stories
- Life
Ancient enzymes adapted to a cooler Earth to keep life’s chemical reactions going
Ancient enzymes kept their speed at lower temperatures.
- Neuroscience
How scientists are hunting for a safer opioid painkiller
Scientists are sorting through chemical structures, twisting and turning known drugs and exploring new ways to ease pain.
- Animals
Tales of creatures large and small made news this year
Scientists filled in the details of some famous evolutionary tales in 2016 — and discovered a few surprises about creatures large and small.
- Health & Medicine
New blood tests can detect prions
Blood tests may detect prion disease in people even before onset of symptoms.
- Life
Force-detecting protein senses when lungs fill with air
A study in mice pinpoints a force-detecting protein that regulates breathing, previously implicated in touch.
- Health & Medicine
Motherhood might actually improve memory
Having a baby changes all sorts of things, including a mother’s brain.
- Astronomy
More fast radio bursts detected from same location
Six more outbursts have been detected from a repeating source of radio waves somewhere outside of our galaxy.
- Animals
For some salamanders, finding a mate is a marathon
Small-mouthed salamanders will travel close to nine kilometers on average to mate, a new study finds.
- Health & Medicine
The Flint water crisis and other public health woes from 2016
Drug use continued to threaten the health and safety of the American public in 2016, while a hidden menace in drinking water remained a worry in Michigan.
- Science & Society
What’s ahead for science in 2017?
Science News writers reveal what they are watching for — and hoping for — in the year ahead.
- Earth
‘Waterworld’ Earth preceded late rise of continents, scientist proposes
Cooling mantle temperatures may have lifted Earth’s continents above sea level, helping spur the Cambrian explosion.
- Earth
Data show no sign of methane boost from thawing permafrost
Rapid Arctic warming has increased emissions of carbon dioxide, but not methane, from northern Alaska tundra.
