Science & Society
‘Schrödinger’s Web’ offers a sneak peek at the quantum internet
For an entertaining overview of the physics and technological advances paving the way for the quantum internet, read ‘Schrödinger’s Web.’
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Cover Story
Cheap, innovative venom treatments could save tens of thousands of snakebite victims
Momentum is building to finally tackle a neglected health problem that strikes poor, rural communities.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Physics
Toy boats float upside down underneath a layer of levitated liquid
The upward force of buoyancy keeps objects afloat even in unusual conditions.
Notebook
Science & Society
College biology textbooks still portray a world of white scientists
Despite recent efforts to include more women and people of color, it will be decades — or even centuries — before textbooks reflect student diversity.
Features
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Life on Earth may have begun in hostile hot springs
What researchers learn at hot springs and seafloor vents may guide the search for life on icy moons and Mars.
More Stories from the September 26, 2020 issue
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, an experimental drug hinted at serotonin’s many roles in the brain
Excerpt from the October 3, 1970 issue of Science News
- Science & Society
How COVID-19 worsened gender inequality in the U.S. workforce
Compared with men, the pandemic disproportionately hurt working women, including mothers of young children.
- Astronomy
Check out the first-ever map of the solar corona’s magnetic field
Solar physicists watched waves in the sun’s corona to map the whole corona’s magnetic field. Future observers could use the same technique to predict solar eruptions.
- Life
How two new fungus species got named after the COVID-19 pandemic
Tiny fuzz on a beetle and fake leopard spots on palms now have Latin names that will forever nod to the new coronavirus.
- Physics
Record-breaking gravitational waves reveal that midsize black holes do exist
The biggest merger of two black holes so far raises questions about how the pair of objects came to be.
- Health & Medicine
New treatments aim to treat COVID-19 early, before it gets serious
Some new drugs that may stop the coronavirus from getting into cells, or from reproducing itself, may treat the illness as soon as it’s diagnosed.
- Microbes
If bacteria band together, they can survive for years in space
Tiny clumps of bacteria can survive at least three years in outer space, raising the prospect of interplanetary travel by microbial life.
- Earth
Carbon dioxide from Earth’s mantle may trigger some Italian earthquakes
In the central Apennines of Italy, spikes in natural carbon dioxide emissions line up with the biggest earthquakes.
- Planetary Science
Earth’s building blocks may have had far more water than previously thought
Space rocks and dust from the inner solar system could have delivered enough water to account for all the H2O in the planet’s mantle.
- Earth
What’s behind August 2020’s extreme weather? Climate change and bad luck
On top of a pandemic, the United States is having an epic weather year — a combination of bad luck and a stage set by a warming climate.
- Life
This parasitic plant eavesdrops on its host to know when to flower
Dodder plants have no leaves to sense when to bloom, so the parasites rely on a chemical cue from their hosts instead.
- Archaeology
Stonehenge enhanced sounds like voices or music for people inside the monument
Scientists created a scale model one-twelfth the size of the ancient stone circle to study its acoustics.
