Science & Society
Science News’ Top Reads of 2025
Books about AI, Mars and infectious disease were among our top reads this year.
Current Issue
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
Science has made America great. Is that era over?
Expectations of continued success for American science were shaken this year when the Trump administration cut billions of dollars in funding and fired thousands of scientists.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Science & Society
See the alarming extent of NIH and NSF funding cuts in 2025
In 2025, the Trump administration froze or ended about 5,300 NIH and NSF research grants totaling over $5 billion in unspent funds, a decision that reshaped many fields of science.
The Rest Is History
Anthropology
What Jane Goodall taught me about bones, loss and not wasting anything
A personal reflection recalls Jane Goodall’s quiet pragmatism, her deep bond with Gombe’s chimps and the scientific legacy of her skeletal collection.
More Stories from the December 1, 2025 issue
- Health & Medicine
Building a better skin barrier
Skin is a barrier meant to keep small invaders out. Products making their way across it should boost that mission.
- Neuroscience
Early Parkinson’s trials revive stem cells as a possible treatment
The phase I clinical trials showed stem cell transplants for Parkinson’s disease appear to be safe and might restore dopamine-producing brain cells.
- Animals
Meet the ‘grue jay,’ a rare hybrid songbird
Despite millions of years of evolutionary separation and a geographical divide, a blue jay and green jay mated in Texas. This bird is the result.
- Health & Medicine
Scientists made human egg cells from skin cells
More work needs to be done to create viable human embryos, but the method might someday be used in IVF to help infertile people and male couples.
- Animals
Toy-obsessed dogs give clues to addictive behaviors
Some dogs love playing with toys so intensely they can’t stop—offering scientists a window into behavioral addictions.
- Planetary Science
Dwarf planet Makemake sports the most remote gas in the solar system
The methane gas may constitute a rarefied atmosphere, or it may come from erupting plumes on Makemake’s surface.
- Particle Physics
A primordial black hole may have spewed the highest energy neutrino ever found
The Big Bang may have spawned these theoretical black holes, whose lives are thought to end in a burst of extremely energetic particles.
- Psychology
People with ADHD may have an underappreciated advantage: Hypercuriosity
ADHD is officially a disorder of deficits in attention, behavior and focus. But patients point out upsides, like curiosity. Research is now catching up.
- Materials Science
New wetsuit designs offer a layer of protection against shark bites
By weaving Kevlar or polyethylene nanofibers into standard neoprene in wetsuits, researchers found ways to limit injury during rare encounters with sharks.
- Physics
Scientists made a biological quantum bit out of a fluorescent protein
Researchers could use quantum effects to develop new types of medical imaging inside cells themselves.
- Physics
Ice is more flexible than you think, a new nano-movie shows
Scientists have filmed nanoscale ice crystals adapting to trapped air bubbles without losing structural integrity.
- Astronomy
Astronomers saw a rogue planet going through a rapid growth spurt
The growth spurt hints that the free-floating object evolves like a star, providing clues about rogue planets’ mysterious origins.
- Physics
A ‘ringing’ black hole matches scientists’ predictions
Gravitational waves emitted after two black holes coalesced agree with theories from physicists Stephen Hawking and Roy Kerr.
- Paleontology
Crystallized dino eggs provide a peek into the tumultuous Late Cretaceous
Definitively dating the age of a clutch of fossil dinosaur eggs at a famous site in China may let scientists link eggshell features to environmental shifts at the time.
- Archaeology
12,000-year-old rock art hints at the Arabian Desert’s lush past
Newly found engravings of animals on rock outcrops in Saudi Arabia’s Nefud desert show nomads lived there thousands of years ago.
- Health & Medicine
The brain preserves maps of missing hands for years
Countering the idea of large-scale rewiring, women whose hands were removed retained durable brain activity patterns linked to their missing fingers.
- Genetics
AI generated its first working genome: a tiny bacteria killer
Bacteriophages designed with AI kill E. coli faster than a well-studied strain, but the tech needs regulation before moving beyond lab dishes.
- Physics
Here’s how Rudolph’s light-up nose might be possible
Simple chemistry could give the reindeer his famously bright snout. But physics would make it look different colors from the ground.
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Math puzzle: A Loopy Holiday Gift Exchange
Solve the math puzzle from our December 2025 issue, in which a holiday gift exchange occurs.
