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An illustration of stars orbiting the Milky Way's central, supermassive black hole

A record-breaking star could reveal how the Milky Way’s giant black hole spins

The star passes very close to the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole and could reveal the black hole’s spin by tracking how it warps the star’s orbit.

By Mara Johnson-Groh47 minutes ago

A thermometer layered over bubble wrap and vaccine packaging in a cooler reads 5 degrees Celsius

Health & Medicine

No refrigerator, no problem. This experimental vaccine doesn’t need it.

By Sahas Mehra2 hours ago

A taiga shrew (Sorex isodon) is shown on lush green grass

Animals

Shrews’ noses grow in winter as their brains shrink

By Jake Buehler17 hours ago

Health & Medicine

What Spider-Man gets right — and wrong — about turning off superpowers

By Tina Hesman SaeyAugust 18, 2026

A yellow-and-black grove snail (Cepaea nemoralis) crawls over a wet brown rock

Animals

Snail slime does many jobs thanks to calcium

By Jake BuehlerAugust 17, 2026

A blue gloved hand holds a COVID-19 vaccine bottle.

Health & Medicine

The COVID-19 vaccine may offer brain cancer patients a surprise benefit

By Meghan RosenAugust 17, 2026

Three small gray monkeys with long striped tails sit in a row on a power line with lots of cords attached to a wooden pole. In the background is a forested area.

Health & Medicine

How a brutal drought may have helped unleash yellow fever in Brazil

By Erin Garcia de JesúsAugust 14, 2026

We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

Spotlight on Health

A peacefully sleeping baby lies on a NICU bed with protective clear barriers

A light-based scan could detect deadly bowel disease in preterm babies

Necrotizing enterocolitis strikes premature babies with almost no warning. A new approach aims to detect it early with a quick, low-risk scan.

By Brendan PiersonAugust 14, 2026
Estrogen therapy is linked to fewer signs of Alzheimer’s in the brain
Newborn screening for cancer risk could save lives. Should it be done?

Science News Magazine

August 2026 issue of Science News

August 1, 2026 Vol. 208 No. 8

From Science News Investors Lab

Featured Media

A dog (border collie) sits inside an MRI machine.

Sad or afraid? Dogs may be able to read your face

A new brain-imaging study suggests that dogs may be able to distinguish between certain negative human emotions just by looking at people’s faces.

a segment of the sun's surface with jagged lines and shades of orange swirls

These tiny swirls on the sun could trigger solar flares

What’s to blame for Canada’s wildfires?

The outline of the constellation Orion is seen on a starry sky. An inset pointing to one spot on Orion has an image of the red supergiant Betelgeuse. An inset of that image shows a bright spot near the big star.

New images reveal Betelgeuse’s buddy star

illustration of the 4 different types of black holes: primordial, stellar, intermediate, and supermassive, over a background of space.

What kinds of black holes exist — and how are they different?

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More Stories

Life

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

By Aaron Tremper and Mandana TadayonJuly 2, 2026
Can DEET attract mosquitoes? A lab study offers clues

By Erin Garcia de JesúsMay 28, 2026
Cows’ methane burps may be fueled by a newfound organelle in gut microbes

By Tina Hesman SaeyApril 30, 2026

Humans

Who owns your bones?

By Nancy ShuteJuly 18, 2026
Have a taste of our favorite food stories from 2025

By Carly KayDecember 24, 2025
‘Black Religion in the Madhouse’ examines psychiatry and race post-Civil War

By Aimee CunninghamDecember 12, 2025

Climate

A new map traces the sky’s water highways

By Siddhant PusdekarJuly 14, 2026
Can geoengineering blunt El Niño’s fury?

By Carolyn GramlingJuly 8, 2026
A robot swarm is on a mission to map Greenland’s perilous ice sheets

By Mićo TatalovićJuly 7, 2026

Astronomy

A newly found world blurs the boundary between planet and moon

By Lisa GrossmanJuly 22, 2026
This “exotic weirdo” exoplanet has a rocky surface and an atmosphere

By Lisa GrossmanJuly 16, 2026
A quasar breaks the record for most distant supermassive black hole

By Lisa GrossmanJuly 14, 2026

Physics

The glue that binds a proton may be key to its identity

By Emily ConoverAugust 13, 2026
Pickles glow when you plug them in. Science explains why

By Emily ConoverJuly 6, 2026
A potential hindrance to fusion power may help instead

By Emily ConoverJune 24, 2026

Health & Medicine

Here’s what the first mRNA flu vaccine could mean for flu season

By Cassie MartinAugust 6, 2026
Bullfrogs may have an antidote to deadly shellfish poisoning

By Katarina ZimmerAugust 5, 2026
To detect CTE while alive, a test for another brain disease may help

By RJ MackenzieJuly 31, 2026

Earth

Mammals moving between the Americas stopped over in Mexico

By Bethany BrookshireJuly 30, 2026
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

Science & Society

Bamboo toilet paper intrigued me. Reality turned out to be messy

By Rebecca DzombakAugust 11, 2026
Science backs calls for limiting screens in schools

By Sujata GuptaAugust 10, 2026
The golden age of language was a few thousand years ago

By Sujata GuptaJuly 23, 2026