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illustration: front-right is a mostly dark exoplanet with a red hue and back left is a smaller white-ish planet with a glowing red hue and a smaller black dot appearing in the white hue

This “exotic weirdo” exoplanet has a rocky surface and an atmosphere

Astronomers found a helium atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet — a good sign for the search for life outside the solar system.

By Lisa Grossman5 hours ago

an illustration of someone canoeing towards a waterfall of molecules

Genes offer new clues to stopping Huntington’s disease in its tracks

By Elie Dolgin9 hours ago

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

An ancient Maya astronomer finally has a name

By Tom Metcalfe11 hours ago

Close-up of a rock in varying shades of grey

Space

The 2024 New Jersey meteorite contains amino acids

By Lisa GrossmanJuly 15, 2026

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 TremperJuly 15, 2026

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

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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More Stories

Life

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
Smithsonian secrets most likely to blow your mind

By Meghan Rosen and Stephen VossApril 14, 2026

Humans

Have a taste of our favorite food stories from 2025

By Carly KayDecember 24, 2025
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By Aimee CunninghamDecember 12, 2025
Ancient southern Africans took genetic evolution in a new direction

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Climate

A robot swarm is on a mission to map Greenland’s perilous ice sheets

By Mićo TatalovićJuly 7, 2026
A ‘Super El Niño’ may be on the way. What does that mean?

By Carolyn GramlingJune 17, 2026
The North Atlantic’s ‘cold blob’ may signal a major current’s decline

By Carolyn GramlingJune 15, 2026

Astronomy

A quasar breaks the record for most distant supermassive black hole

By Lisa GrossmanJuly 14, 2026
Even quiet black holes create winds, new Milky Way observations reveal

By Mara Johnson-GrohJune 4, 2026
Astronomers may have found a record-breaking pair of black holes

By Mara Johnson-GrohMay 11, 2026

Physics

A potential hindrance to fusion power may help instead

By Emily ConoverJune 24, 2026
Here’s what would happen if you tried to break a photon in half

By Maria TemmingJune 12, 2026
Clocks made from an atomic nucleus just ticked on for the first time

By Emily ConoverJune 11, 2026

Health & Medicine

Support goes a long way to boost birth control effectiveness

By Aimee CunninghamJuly 9, 2026
Many U.S. teens underestimate fentanyl’s deadly risk

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

By Aimee CunninghamJune 29, 2026

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
Earth’s stratosphere is a mysterious superhighway for microbes

By Douglas FoxJune 10, 2026

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

By Bethany BrookshireJune 29, 2026