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Ladderlike fluorescent patterns representing DNA sequence in blue, orange, yellow and green is overlayed on an image of an open book.

AI tool AlphaGenome predicts how one typo can change a genetic story

The tool helps scientists understand how single-letter mutations and distant DNA regions influence gene activity, shaping health and disease risk.

By Tina Hesman Saey1 hour ago

This composite image shows different sources of fat in our diets: someone slicing steak, three half avocados, four strips of salmon ready to cook, someone pouring olive oil on a salad, a stick of butter with its wrapper half off and a jar of nuts.

Health & Medicine

What the new nutrition guidelines get wrong about fat

By Tina Hesman Saey3 hours ago

An illustration of Nerve pathways linking the heart and brain, which play a role in heart attacks

Health & Medicine

The brain’s response to a heart attack may worsen recovery

By Alessio CozzolinoJanuary 27, 2026

A garden spider is shown close-up with silk coming out of its spinneret

Animals

Spider silk-making organs evolved due to a 400-million-year-old genetic oops

By Jake BuehlerJanuary 27, 2026

A stick arcs horizontally on a white background. It is possibly the oldest wooden handheld tool ever found.

This ancient stick may be the world’s oldest handheld wooden tool

By Tom MetcalfeJanuary 26, 2026

The image is a collage of four animals. The leftmost image is an adult king penguin walking toward the camera on a beach with waves in the background. The center left image is a koala holding onto a tree trunk and facing to the right. The center right image is an Asian elephant walking inside an enclosure toward the camera. The right image is a little brown bat hanging upside down inside a cave.

Animals

Some vaccines are making progress in protecting vulnerable species

By Erin Garcia de JesúsJanuary 26, 2026

A gray Greenland shark swimming in blue water faces the viewer.

Animals

How Greenland sharks defy aging

By Meghan RosenJanuary 23, 2026

We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

Spotlight on Health

A health care worker wearing blue gloves applies a small adhesive bandage to a child’s upper arm after vaccination.

What science says about the Trump administration’s new vaccine schedule

The federal move to no longer recommend certain vaccines for all U.S. children is not supported by new evidence and could undermine health gains.

By Aimee CunninghamJanuary 8, 2026
New dietary guidelines flip the food pyramid
He made beer that’s also a vaccine. Now controversy is brewing

Sponsored Partner Content

Walter “Wally” Gilbert is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor Emeritus and Emeritus Chair of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. Gilbert is an alumnus of the 1949 Science Talent Search (STS), a program of Society for Science.

Conversations with Maya: Walter Gilbert

This article has been paid for and developed by Society for Science.

Science News Magazine

cover of February 2026 issue of Science News

February 1, 2026 Vol. 208 No. 2

Featured Media

different animals appearing to experience joy – laughing or smiling. Axolotl, turtle, monkey, horse and dolphin.

Animals experience joy. Scientists want to measure it

Scientists have long focused on quantifying fear and other negative emotions in animals. Now they’re trying to measure positive feelings — and it’s a challenge.

This hand stencil in Indonesia is now the oldest known rock art

This detached hand robot has a thing for skittering on its fingertips

This tool-using cow defies expectations for bovine braininess

A close-up of the head and neck of a natually mummified cheetah as seen on a table in a lab. The rest of its body is out of sight.

How cheetah mummies could help bring the species back to Arabia

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Life

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Astronomy

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Physics

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