Science News for Students

Leftover opioids? Teen finds possible way to kill such pills

Chemically deactivating them could make disposal easy, reduce risk of misuse

Explainer: What are acids and bases?

One likes to give away protons and the other likes to snatch them up

Sunflower-like rods could boost efficiency of solar collectors

They keep bending toward the sun, then stopping when poised to soak up maximum energy

Saturn now reigns as the solar system’s ‘moon king’

Astronomers discovered the ringed planet has 20 more planets, bringing its total to 82

Sponsor

Editor's Picks

Physics

Boom! Sounding out the enemy

a woman soccer player heading a soccer ball

In a head-to-head comparison, soccer balls appeared to damage women’s brains more than men’s.

Henry Huey/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Brain

Soccer headers may hurt women’s brains more than men’s

People tend to view sports where people collide with each other as posing the greatest risk of head injuries. But even in solo sports, such as snowboarding, accidents can lead to serious brain trauma.

familylifestyle/iStockphoto

Athletes’ head injuries can provoke surprisingly long-lasting harm

Trending

In the periodic table, elements are lined up by atomic number, the number of protons they have. An element’s location in the table relates to its reactivity and how its electrons are arranged.

duntaro/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Scientists Say: Periodic table

Moonlight affects animals in many different ways. Wildebeests (a herd shown) rely on moonlight to avoid nighttime attacks by hungry lions.

Karann Kalsey/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Animals

The moon has power over animals

People love scary, spooky stories of spectral phantoms. While there’s no science to support the existence of ghosts, research does provide plenty of explanations for why we might genuinely sense a supernatural presence.

D-Keine/E+/Getty Images

Culture

The science of ghosts

If the moon can exert potent effects on wildlife, from birds to fish and African buffalo, what can it do to people? Right now, the data are mixed and not all that convincing.

MissDareDevil/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Explainer: Earth — layer by layer

Earth

Sizzling heat, unimaginable pressure and some surprise diamonds: It’s all there, deep beneath us

Space

Scientists Say: Black hole

This is an object in space with such intense gravity that not even light can escape

Health risks are scaring some teen vapers into considering quitting

The challenge: Money and other resources are geared more to helping smokers, not vapers

Teen’s research suggests spinning wing parts might boost aircraft safety

Whirling device on a wing’s leading edge could help prevent stalls and spins in some situations

If it exerts a major effect, the data haven’t proven what it might be. Oh, and forget werewolves

Blogs

Patients can easily overdose on opioid medications. Now a teen has come up with a strategy to chemically deactivate unused pills. This would make them useless to thieves or addicts.

Darwin Brandis/iStock /Getty Images Plus

Leftover opioids? Teen finds possible way to kill such pills

Replacing an aircraft wing’s leading edge with a spinning cylinder could increase lift, reduce drag and help prevent some stalls and spins. That’s the findings of a teen’s new research.

Ian and Rylan Gardner

Teen’s research suggests spinning wing parts might boost aircraft safety

In the process of making discoveries, scientists make hypotheses. These are ideas put forth to explain things in the natural world that scientists then investigate through experiments, observations and other methods.

Django/E+/Getty Images

Scientists Say: Hypothesis

Top winners at the 2019 Broadcom MASTERS competition appear center stage. From left to right: Lauren Ejiaga, Sidor Clare, Alaina Gassler, Rachel Bergey and Alexis MacAvoy. Alaina Gassler took home the $25,000 top prize.

Linda Doane/Society for Science & the Public

Teen auto-safety researcher nabs $25,000 science fair prize

Body & Brain

Starting to vape is easy, but quitting a nicotine habit can be tough, teens are finding. Some vaping-cessation programs have begun to reach out to teens where they live — on their phones.

Mixmike/E+/Getty Images

Health risks are scaring some teen vapers into considering quitting

If the moon can exert potent effects on wildlife, from birds to fish and African buffalo, what can it do to people? Right now, the data are mixed and not all that convincing.

MissDareDevil/iStock/Getty Images Plus

D-Keine/E+/Getty Images

Culture

The science of ghosts

The mosquito Aedes aegypti (seen on human skin) transmits several dangerous diseases, including Zika. Researchers have shown that these bloodsuckers can’t bite through a fabric made of graphene.

TacioPhilip/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Graphene fabric keeps mosquitoes from biting

Ecosystems

Groundwater pumping is draining rivers and streams worldwide

Over half of pumped watersheds could pass a serious type of limit by 2050

Animals

Standing out helps barn owls on the hunt

White feathers reflect moonlight, stunning their prey

Teaching Science

Scientists Say: Hypothesis

This is an idea put forth to explain events in the natural world

Pollution

Earthworms lose weight in soils polluted with microplastics

Plants were stunted, too, as scrawnier worms may offer fewer benefits to them and their soil

Culture

The science of ghosts

Here’s what may explain why some people see, hear or feel a spooky presence

Space

Saturn now has the most known moons of any planet in the solar system. The Cassini spacecraft took this image in 2011. It shows Saturn and five of its moons.

Space Science Institute, JPL-Caltech/NASA

Saturn now reigns as the solar system’s ‘moon king’

Scientists shared this first-ever picture of a black hole in April 2019. They made this picture by combining images taken by a network of telescopes across the globe called the Event Horizon Telescope.

Event Horizon Telescope Collaborative

Space

Scientists Say: Black hole

If the moon can exert potent effects on wildlife, from birds to fish and African buffalo, what can it do to people? Right now, the data are mixed and not all that convincing.

MissDareDevil/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Exoplanet K2 18b, shown in the foreground of this artist’s depiction, might have liquid water. It has clouds and could rain, too.

M. Kornmesser, Hubble/ESA

Spotted: An exoplanet where it might rain

Invention & Innovation

Rods of a new solar-energy-collection material seen at front of this drawing were inspired by sunflowers.

Yusen Zhao, Yousif Alsaid and Ximin He

Sunflower-like rods could boost efficiency of solar collectors

The mosquito Aedes aegypti (seen on human skin) transmits several dangerous diseases, including Zika. Researchers have shown that these bloodsuckers can’t bite through a fabric made of graphene.

TacioPhilip/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Graphene fabric keeps mosquitoes from biting

When not on the move, snails use mucus to stick to plants and other objects.

Gabriel Pacce/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Reversible superglue mimics snail slime

a woman testing her blood sugar on a hike

People with diabetes monitor their blood sugar to avoid organ damage. Many take drugs that affect insulin, a hormone that controls blood sugar. Researchers are exploring ultrasound as an alternative to those drugs.

AzmanJaka/E+/Getty Images Plus; adapted by L. Steenblik Hwang

Ultrasound might become a new way to manage diabetes

Scientists Say: Periodic table

This is a chart of the chemical elements arranged by their properties

Cool Job: One green chemist is mining zoo dung for biological helpers

Her goal is to convert farm-field wastes into useful fuels and chemicals

Oceans

Cool Job: This ecologist is studying an ocean of changes

He’s collecting data to better understand humanity’s role in and on the warming seas

a screen capture from The Addams Family movie of Wednesday Addams

Body functions

Technically Fiction

Could Wednesday Addams really jolt a frog back to life?

Electricity is powerful, but not in the way seen in The Addams Family

Body functions

The color of body fat might affect how trim people are

Brown, beige, white? Upping the type that burns calories instead of storing them could become a key to health

Latest Headlines

Patients can easily overdose on opioid medications. Now a teen has come up with a strategy to chemically deactivate unused pills. This would make them useless to thieves or addicts.

Darwin Brandis/iStock /Getty Images Plus

Leftover opioids? Teen finds possible way to kill such pills

Chemists often use a test — one in which the color of a special chemical on some test strip changes — to determine if some liquid (here, lemon juice and soapy water) is an acid or a base.

ozergok/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Explainer: What are acids and bases?

Rods of a new solar-energy-collection material seen at front of this drawing were inspired by sunflowers.

Yusen Zhao, Yousif Alsaid and Ximin He

Sunflower-like rods could boost efficiency of solar collectors

Saturn now has the most known moons of any planet in the solar system. The Cassini spacecraft took this image in 2011. It shows Saturn and five of its moons.

Space Science Institute, JPL-Caltech/NASA

Saturn now reigns as the solar system’s ‘moon king’

Math & Technology

Rods of a new solar-energy-collection material seen at front of this drawing were inspired by sunflowers.

Yusen Zhao, Yousif Alsaid and Ximin He

Sunflower-like rods could boost efficiency of solar collectors

The mosquito Aedes aegypti (seen on human skin) transmits several dangerous diseases, including Zika. Researchers have shown that these bloodsuckers can’t bite through a fabric made of graphene.

TacioPhilip/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Graphene fabric keeps mosquitoes from biting

A new device that harnesses energy from the cold night sky could light up rooms, charge phones and power devices for people in remote areas.

Ryan Hutton/Unsplash

This device uses the cold night sky to generate electricity

When not on the move, snails use mucus to stick to plants and other objects.

Gabriel Pacce/iStock/Getty Images Plus