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Magazine
In the May 11 & 25 SN: High-tech cricket farming, AI learns from Minecraft, looking for lithium, a new hominid species is named, signs of life in dead pig brains, Cherokee cave texts decoded, water molecules on the moon and more.
December 22, 2018View Digital Issue
Editor's Note
Editor in Chief Nancy Shute discusses creating Science News' annual Top 10 science stories of the year.
Magazine issue: Vol.
194, No. 12
,
December 22, 2018
, p. 2
Features
Feature
2018 was a year all about impact — on the planet, on solving crimes, on mosquito populations, on reversing paralysis, and more.
Call to Action
Editor's Note
Editor in Chief Nancy Shute discusses creating Science News' annual Top 10 science stories of the year.
Features
2018 was a year all about impact — on the planet, on solving crimes, on mosquito populations, on reversing paralysis, and more.
Year in Review
In 2018, AI bested humans at following fauna, diagnosing disease, mapping the moon and more.
From black hole insights to the future of self-driving cars to figuring out what it means to be human, 2019 will be a big year in science.
This year, some missions started exploring the cosmos, while others were winding down.
Discoveries about fossils, the Big Bang and more could shake up the scientific world – if they turn out to be true.
In the #MeToo era, the scientific community is confronting its own sexual harassment problems and looking to research for solutions.
Climate attribution studies and new data on global warming targets put climate change in the spotlight this year.
A researcher in China announced he created two babies using CRISPR. Many scientists questioned the study’s ethics and medical necessity.
DNA searches of a public genealogy database are closing cases and opening privacy concerns.
Particles associated with a blazar kick-start the field of neutrino astronomy.
Scientists disagree on what a possible crater found under Greenland’s ice means for the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis.
An early lab test of exterminating a much-hated mosquito raises hopes, but is it really such a great idea?
Studies claiming that alcohol in even small amounts is dangerous weren’t designed to address risks of moderate drinking.
High schoolers’ use of e-cigarettes shot up from 2017 to 2018, and public health officials are concerned that a new generation is at risk for nicotine addiction.
Planetary scientists are still trying to explain how a lake could have formed beneath a kilometer and a half of Martian ice.
A handful of people paralyzed from spinal cord injuries have learned to walk again.
Human ingenuity began on treks across Asia and in fluctuating African habitats.
News
When implanted electrodes stimulated a brain region just behind the eyes, people’s spirits were raised immediately.
An archaeological site not far from the Dead Sea shows signs of sudden, superheated collapse 3,700 years ago.
Ancient Homo species spread advances in toolmaking far beyond East Africa.
The shapes of cactus spines influence how they poke passersby.
More than 40 meters up, balloon traps in Mali caught females of malaria-spreading mosquito species.
A friendly microbe in the gut may be the key to staving off insulin resistance, a study in mice finds.
A small aircraft prototype is powered by ionic wind flowing in one direction and pushing the plane in the other.
After a year of careful peanut protein exposure, most kids in a clinical trial could tolerate the equivalent of two large peanuts.
Colorado’s legal fields of low-THC cannabis can attract a lot of bees.
As urbanization extends its reach into once-natural areas, more homes and people are at risk from wildfires.
The irregular flickering of star VVV-WIT-07 is reminiscent of Tabby’s star, which brought speculation of alien megastructures.
Stone tools that are at least 30,000 years old suggest that people settled the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau earlier than scientists thought.
Residue of the aromatic substance in 3 jugs dates to around 3,600 years ago.
A bandage that sticks to the surface of the heart exudes proteins and other molecules that help muscle cells grow.
August-born kids have higher rates of ADHD diagnosis than kids born in September in U.S. states with a September 1 cutoff for starting kindergarten.
New study indicates that the proton is much more than just the sum of its parts.
NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is going to Jezero crater, the site of an ancient river delta that may harbor signs of life.
A newly discovered rock pattern suggests that the game traveled fast from the Near East to Eurasia thousands of years ago.
Notebook
Apollo 8 launched on December 21, 1968, with three astronauts on board, making 10 revolutions around the moon — the first manned lunar orbits.
Climate change could shorten the time it takes for the world to receive half its annual precipitation from 12 days to 11 by 2100.
The elasticity of wombats’ intestines helps the creatures shape their distinctive poops.
A newly named plant-eater from the Late Triassic was surprisingly hefty.
Reviews & Previews
Science News writers and editors pick which science books were this year’s must-reads.
Science Visualized
Earth’s largest known impact crater measures 160 kilometers in diameter. The newest, yet to be confirmed, stretches a still-whopping 31 kilometers.
Letters to the Editor
From male birth control to wombat poop, Science News online readers had a wide variety of favorite stories on our website.