Essay

  1. A photo of Louis Pasteur's head surrounded by illustrations of scientific equipment, leaves, and swirls
    Health & Medicine

    Louis Pasteur’s devotion to truth transformed what we know about health and disease

    Two centuries after his birth, Louis Pasteur's work on pasteurization, germ theory and vaccines is as relevant as ever.

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  2. a collage of Science News covers
    Science & Society

    Some past Science News coverage was racist and sexist. We’re deeply sorry

    During our early history, Science News shared and endorsed ideas that were unscientific and morally wrong.

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  3. crescent moon
    Anthropology

    Ancient humans used the moon as a calendar in the sky

    Whether the moon was a timekeeper for early humans, as first argued during the Apollo missions, is still up for debate.

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  4. Dimitri Mendeleev
    Chemistry

    How the periodic table went from a sketch to an enduring masterpiece

    150 years ago, Russian chemist Dmitrii Mendeleev created the periodic table of the elements, revolutionizing chemistry.

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  5. Stephen Hawking
    Physics

    How physicists will remember Stephen Hawking

    Researchers reflect on Stephen Hawking's contributions to the field and the cosmological puzzles he left behind.

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  6. Heliconius butterflies
    Life

    Defining ‘species’ is a fuzzy art

    Here's why scientists still don't agree on what a species is.

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  7. qubit representation
    Quantum Physics

    A quarter century ago, the qubit was born

    The invention of the qubit a quarter century ago enabled the quantum information revolution.

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  8. uphill battle
    Health & Medicine

    The fight against infectious diseases is still an uphill battle

    The fight against infectious diseases is far from over. The last several decades have seen many outbreaks and global pandemic scares.

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  9. searching for dark matter
    Physics

    Shadows of two failed searches loom over physics

    Physicists are facing two failures this year with no detections of dark matter particles and no signs of supersymmetry from the Large Hadron Collider.

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  10. Allen Telescope Array
    Science & Society

    Humans have pondered aliens since medieval times

    People have been fascinated with extraterrestrials for centuries. If only aliens would get in touch.

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  11. Physics

    The long road to detecting gravity waves

    Thanks to two colliding black holes, Einstein's historic prediction of gravitational waves disturbing the fabric of spacetime has finally been realized.

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