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This aerial view of the brown foothills of the Andes shows a ridgetop series of earthen holes, part of an ancient mysterious monument that stretches 1.5 kilometers.

Peru’s Serpent Mountain sheds its mysterious past

No, aliens had nothing to do with a winding 1.5-kilometer-long path of holes. First used as a market, the Inca then repurposed it for tax collection.

By Bruce Bower5 hours ago

A seismic monitoring station in Antarctica

Science & Society

If another country tested nuclear weapons, here’s how we’d know

By Emily Conover6 hours ago

A small desert plant with pale green leaves and tiny purple buds growing in dry, cracked soil.

Plants

A special shape shift helps a shrub thrive in blistering heat

By Siddhant PusdekarNovember 7, 2025

An ammolite fossil with lots of different shimmering opal-like colors in oranges and greens

Materials Science

What causes the rainbow shimmer of ammolite gems?

By Maria TemmingNovember 7, 2025

A downy woodpecker (a tiny bird with a white belly and black back), hangs off of a small branch, presumably while hammering at it.

Animals

Woodpecker hammering is a full-body affair

By Anna GibbsNovember 6, 2025

A stream of water breaks up into droplets as it falls into a person's hands.

Physics

Water jets may break up into droplets thanks to jiggling molecules

By Emily ConoverNovember 6, 2025

A portrait of Adeene Denton

Planetary Science

How did Pluto capture its largest moon, Charon?

By McKenzie PrillamanNovember 5, 2025

We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

Spotlight on Health

Three labeled COVID-19 vaccine syringes lie on a dark surface.

Cancer treatments may get a boost from mRNA COVID vaccines

Cancer patients who got an mRNA COVID vaccine within a few months of their immunotherapy lived longer than those who did not, health records show.

By Meghan RosenOctober 31, 2025
Two tiny genetic shifts helped early humans walk upright
Most women get uterine fibroids. This researcher wants to know why

Science News Magazine

November 2025 cover of Science News

November 1, 2025 Vol. 207 No. 11

From the Archives

Permian Extinctions: Super-Salty Sea?

November 1, 1975 Vol. 108 No. #18

Featured Media

A portrait of Alex Lupsasca.

Black holes are encircled by thin rings of light. This physicist wants to see one

Theoretical physicist Alex Lupsasca is pushing for a space telescope to glimpse the thin ring of light that is thought to surround every black hole.

Deep Antarctic waters hold geometric communities of fish nests

Hurricane Melissa spins into a monster storm as it bears down on Jamaica

These simple knife tricks stop onion tears instantly

A brown and gray rhino viper sitting on cardboard in a curled position.

Which venomous snakes strike the fastest?

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More Stories

Life

A rice weevil frozen in flight won the 2025 Nikon Small World photo contest

By Carly KayOctober 17, 2025
We all have a (very tiny) glow of light, no movie magic needed

By Bethany BrookshireOctober 15, 2025
A sixth mass extinction? Not so fast, some scientists say

By Jake BuehlerSeptember 4, 2025

Humans

Napoleon’s retreating army may have been plagued by these microbes

By Meghan RosenOctober 24, 2025
Brain cancer can dissolve parts of the skull

By Meghan RosenOctober 24, 2025
An ancient bone recasts how Indigenous Australians treated megafauna

By Richard KemenyOctober 21, 2025

Climate

Australia’s tropical forests now emit CO₂, clouding the COP30 talks

By Carolyn GramlingOctober 27, 2025
As wildfires worsen, science can help communities avoid destruction

By Nikk OgasaOctober 16, 2025
Coral collapse signals Earth’s first climate tipping point

By Carolyn GramlingOctober 12, 2025

Astronomy

See the largest, most detailed radio image of the Milky Way yet

By McKenzie PrillamanNovember 4, 2025
Some planets might home brew their own water

By Javier BarbuzanoOctober 29, 2025
Astronomers saw a rogue planet going through a rapid growth spurt

By McKenzie PrillamanOctober 10, 2025

Physics

There’s math behind this maddening golf mishap

By Emily ConoverNovember 4, 2025
A tiny, levitated glass sphere behaves like the hottest engine ever made

By Emily ConoverOctober 21, 2025
These parachutes unfurl thanks to the Japanese art of kirigami

By Emily ConoverOctober 1, 2025

Health & Medicine

Volunteers agreed to be buried face-down in the snow, for science

By Aimee CunninghamNovember 3, 2025
COVID-related smell loss may last years

By Meghan RosenOctober 21, 2025
Even for elite athletes, the body’s metabolism has its limits

By Laura SandersOctober 20, 2025

Earth

Two of Greece’s most dangerous volcanoes share an underground link

By Carolyn GramlingSeptember 24, 2025
Recycled glass could help fend off coastal erosion

By Jude ColemanSeptember 12, 2025
20 years after Hurricane Katrina, is the U.S. better prepared?

By Carolyn GramlingAugust 28, 2025

Science & Society

Our relationship with alcohol is fraught. Ancient customs might inspire a reset

By Sujata GuptaOctober 17, 2025
Nobel Prizes honor great discoveries — but leave much of science unseen

By Bethany BrookshireOctober 3, 2025
Scientists are people too, a new book reminds readers

By Karen KwonAugust 19, 2025