Essay
- Earth
How hot can Earth get? Our planet’s climate history holds clues
Earth has survived huge temperature swings over eons of climate change. Humans might not be so lucky.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Physics
How physicists will remember Stephen Hawking
Researchers reflect on Stephen Hawking's contributions to the field and the cosmological puzzles he left behind.
- Life
Defining ‘species’ is a fuzzy art
Here's why scientists still don't agree on what a species is.
- Quantum Physics
A quarter century ago, the qubit was born
The invention of the qubit a quarter century ago enabled the quantum information revolution.
- 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.
- 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.
- Science & Society
Humans have pondered aliens since medieval times
People have been fascinated with extraterrestrials for centuries. If only aliens would get in touch.
- 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.
