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A stepped stone pyramid rises against a night sky filled with stars.

An ancient Maya astronomer finally has a name

A Maya calendar formula bears the name Sak Tahn Waax, the first known Classic Maya mathematician-astronomer directly credited for such work.

By Tom Metcalfe59 minutes ago

Close-up of a rock in varying shades of grey

Space

The 2024 New York City meteorite contains amino acids

By Lisa Grossman19 hours ago

An illustration of a human in a space suit, working alongside a team of robots.

Artificial Intelligence

AI is not ready to fly solo in space

By Aaron Tremper23 hours ago

An illustration shows blue hubs filled with threadlike squiggles to denote tau in the brain. Fuzzy brown orbs represent amyloid plaques. Both are hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.

Health & Medicine

A new sort of Alzheimer’s drug shows glimmers of promise

By RJ MackenzieJuly 14, 2026

Climate

A new map traces the sky’s water highways

By Siddhant PusdekarJuly 14, 2026

A quasar illustrated as a bright white, yellow and orange disk of swirling material on a black background.

A quasar breaks the record for most distant supermassive black hole

By Lisa GrossmanJuly 14, 2026

A composite image of arms shows a person writing the number eight with the left hand and the right hand. The eight on the right is smoother.

Whether lefty or righty, practice makes the difference

By Laura SandersJuly 13, 2026

We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

Spotlight on Wildfire Smoke and Health

photo of a baseball stadium with a cityscape obscured by smoke in the background

Wildfires aren’t going away. Here’s how smoke can affect your health

How does repeat exposure to wildfire smoke affect our health? Three experts weigh in on the massive air pollution fueled by Canada’s ongoing fires.

By Meghan RosenJuly 12, 2023
Western wildfires’ health risks extend across the country
Wildfire smoke may cause tens of thousands of premature deaths

Science News Magazine

July 2026 cover of Science News

July 1, 2026 Vol. 208 No. 7

From Science News Investors Lab

Featured Media

A satellite image of hot sea surface temperatures, shown by shades of red and orange, in the eastern Pacific Ocean that signaled the start of an El Niño event.

Can geoengineering blunt El Niño’s fury?

Marine cloud brightening could cool part of the Pacific and weaken extreme El Niños, simulations suggest. But the approach could have risks.

Pickles glow when you plug them in. Science explains why

A landscape of a tropical rainforest canopy with trees of various heights

Giant trees have tricks to work around drought

a collage of images from items on display at the Smithsonian museum of natural history overlaid on a photo of the museum building. items include fossils, a bird, a crab, a bison, and butterflies.

The natural history of every U.S. state is on display at a new D.C. exhibit

A tan, long, skinny shark is seen on the seafloor resting on colorful rocks. It sports a pattern of dark brown spots and white dashes.

A new species of walking shark has been found in Papua New Guinea

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Life

Can DEET attract mosquitoes? A lab study offers clues

By Erin Garcia de JesúsMay 28, 2026
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By Tina Hesman SaeyApril 30, 2026
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Humans

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Climate

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Astronomy

Even quiet black holes create winds, new Milky Way observations reveal

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Physics

A potential hindrance to fusion power may help instead

By Emily ConoverJune 24, 2026
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By Maria TemmingJune 12, 2026
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Health & Medicine

Support goes a long way to boost birth control effectiveness

By Aimee CunninghamJuly 9, 2026
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By Aimee CunninghamJuly 7, 2026
Acetaminophen in pregnancy shows no link to autism or ADHD, again

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Earth

A tropical permafrost layer in Peru may be one of the world’s largest

By Danielle BeurteauxJune 22, 2026
A 2011 earthquake bounced a seismic wave off Earth’s core, nudging Japan east

By Katherine KorneiJune 18, 2026
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Science & Society

Here’s what happens when you put politicians in charge of science

By Tina Hesman SaeyJuly 10, 2026
Lost in Curiosity reveals the messy reality of doing science

By Shi En KimJuly 10, 2026
A discovery about this bat’s diet was hiding in a Renaissance painting

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