Science News for Students

Disappearing sea ice could disrupt Arctic’s food web

Data from two U.S. agencies linked climate change with more rain in Eastern states — and flooding, such as here, in South Carolina.

SC National Guard/Flickr

Wet and wild 2018 is officially fourth-hottest year

A photo of a student climate change strike in London on February 15. In the middle of the image is a student holding a sign that reads I'd be in school if the Earth was cool.

Thousands of students protested in support of climate change action in London, England, on February 15. A global strike is planned for March 15.

Socialist Appeal/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Students strike to spur adults into climate action

an underwater photo of a coral reef ecosystem with brightly colored corals and fish

Corals provide the base of a unique community of ocean creatures. But ocean acidification may make it difficult for corals to build their beautiful structures.

iBorisoff/iStockphoto

Shell shocked: Emerging impacts of our acidifying seas

This is a little skate, a fish closely related to sharks and rays. As the oceans get more acidic, little skates may become better walkers.

Page Valentine/USGS; adapted by L. Steenblik Hwang

Animals

Ocean acidification may ground swimming skates

An illustration of a street sign against a sunny sky. One sign says "RIGHT", and the cross-road sign says "WRONG"

Top Story

What part of us knows right from wrong?

Scientists are learning how and why our brains evolved a conscience

a photo of a thunderstorm over a city in the distance, there are two lightning strikes in the middle of the photo

Thunderstorms hold stunningly high voltage

Physicists used subatomic particles called muons to study electricity in storm clouds

This is a kind of spring that shoots water and steam into the air

Scientists Say: Geyser

Mini tyrannosaur fills big evolutionary gap

This deer-sized T. rex relative shows how quickly tyrannosaurs got big

a photo of a sick baby with a thermometer under their arm

Fevers can have some cool benefits

That heating boosts our immunity by speeding disease-fighting cells to an infection

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Editor's Picks

Think you’re not biased? Think again

Racism hurts

Psychology

Five things students can do about racism

Trending

Cameras set up in the Arctic’s Chukchi and Bering seas (one shown) record the amount of light that reaches water through the ice. More light means more algal blooms.

K. Frey/Clark University

Disappearing sea ice could disrupt Arctic’s food web

Corals provide the base of a unique community of ocean creatures. But ocean acidification may make it difficult for corals to build their beautiful structures.

iBorisoff/iStockphoto

Shell shocked: Emerging impacts of our acidifying seas

A fever may be (mostly) good for us, whether we're babies, teens or adults. A new study shows how it speeds infection-fighting cells to where they’ll do the body good.

Aynur_sib/iStockphoto

Fevers can have some cool benefits

Thousands of students protested in support of climate change action in London, England, on February 15. A global strike is planned for March 15.

Socialist Appeal/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Students strike to spur adults into climate action

a photo of lots of Spanish dry-cured ham hanging in a shop

Ham bone broth could be a tonic for the heart

Simmering Spanish ham bones releases heart-healthy chemicals

a photo of a pair of gloved hands holding a rock

Earth

Why we should stop ignoring the life stories of minerals

The crystals shouldn’t just be classified by shape alone, one scientist argues

This African mammal shares its long tongue with its closest relative — the giraffe

Scientists Say: Okapi

a close-up photo of a child's open mouth with a tongue depressor holding the tongue down

Health

What’s behind frequent strep throat? Consult the tonsils

Immune problems may be one source — stowaway germs may give faulty diagnoses

Disappearing sea ice could disrupt Arctic’s food web

If ice-free is the new normal, then big changes are in store for life here

Blogs

This is Strokker geyser in Iceland. It is only a short distance away from the famous Geysir that gives geysers their name.

Hannah Beker/Wikimedia Commons (CC-SA-3.0)

Scientists Say: Geyser

These are okapi. Don’t let the stripes fool you. They are closely related to giraffes, not zebras.

Alan Eng/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-2.0)

Scientists Say: Okapi

Entrants in today’s science fairs are performing research in university labs and also doing award-winning work from home.

StefaNikolic/ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES PLUS

What is trendy in today’s science fair projects?

a photo of an emergency road sign that says "Global warming ahead"

If you could do one thing to stop climate change, what would it be?

Bill Oxford/iStock/Getty Images Plus

These teens have some ideas for stopping climate change

Body & Brain

Your conscience is what helps you decide whether your actions or impulses are good or bad, right or wrong.

JamesBrey/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Psychology

What part of us knows right from wrong?

A fever may be (mostly) good for us, whether we're babies, teens or adults. A new study shows how it speeds infection-fighting cells to where they’ll do the body good.

Aynur_sib/iStockphoto

Fevers can have some cool benefits

Broth from the bones of Spanish dry-cured ham, like that shown here, could boost heart health, new data suggest.

Michal Osmenda/Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-2.0)

Ham bone broth could be a tonic for the heart

The germs that cause strep throat infections can hide out in the tonsils.

vitapix/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Health

What’s behind frequent strep throat? Consult the tonsils

What is trendy in today’s science fair projects?

We analyzed more than 19,000 science fair projects to find out

a photo of the three winners of the 2019 Regerneron Science Talent Search

Exoplanet hunting, HIV-fighting and math garner big prizes for teens

Forty finalists competed for more than $2 million in awards at the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search

a photo of a grandma hugging her grandchild

Culture

Grandmother can be good for grandkids — up to a point

She may boost the kids’ survival, but only when grandma is younger and lives nearby

These teens have some ideas for stopping climate change

Regeneron Science Talent Search finalists share their ideas for halting climate change in its tracks

Wet and wild 2018 is officially fourth-hottest year

And temps are likely to only keep rising, bringing even more extreme weather

Space

Ana Humphrey (center), Samuel Weismann (left) and Adam Ardeishar (right) took home first, second and third place in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search.

C. Ayers/SSP

Exoplanet hunting, HIV-fighting and math garner big prizes for teens

a long exposure of a meteor shower at night

Space dust rains down on Earth all the time. Most of these specks are too small to see. But when one the size of a sand grain hits the atmosphere, it blazes with visible light, becoming a micrometeor, or “shooting star.”

x-reflexnaja/istockphoto

Space

On the lookout for micro-missiles from space

an image of the moon and where the impact happened

During a lunar eclipse on January 21, amateur astronomers caught lucky views of an object roughly the size of a basketball smacking into the moon and producing a bright flash of light (inset).

Fritz Pichardo/Dominican Astronomical Society

Space

Caught on camera: A small rock hit the moon

an artist's illustration of ICESat-2 aiming green laser's at the Earth's surface

ICESat-2’s bright green lasers can monitor Earth’s glaciers and ice sheets by detecting changes in their heights.

NASA

Earth

ICESat-2 measures ice and more from space

Invention & Innovation

a photo of a porthole into an underwater habitat, fish are swimming past the round window

A new kind of glass can keep itself clean underwater. The key is microscopic pancake-shaped structures that let liquid flow between them.

ES3N/iStockphoto

Materials Science

A self-cleaning glass keeps itself spotless underwater

a photo of a green spiral of cyanobacteria printed onto a white mushroom marked with black graphene ink

Researchers 3-D print a green spiral of cyanobacteria onto a mushroom. The microbes give off electrons when exposed to light. Those electrons flow into the black graphene ink to produce an electric current.

American Chemical Society

Technology

This bionic mushroom makes electricity

A new bandage uses electrical pulses to help wounds heal faster. It’s powered by the patient’s natural body motions.

Sam Million-Weaver/Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison

Materials Science

This bandage uses electrical zaps to heal wounds faster

a photo of a person writing "Bye" on rewritable paper

A special pen heats the blue ink on this rewritable paper. As the ink warms, it turns clear. The white paper beneath reveals a written message.

Luzhuo Chen

This rewritable paper depends on disappearing ink

a teen sits on the bed with her head on her knees and her arms wrapped around herself, she is holding a phone

Analyze This: Most teens have been cyberbullied

Analyze This!

Survey tallies the types of bullying kids deal with online and on their phones

an illustration of the earth with latitude and longitude lines

Scientists Say: Latitude and Longitude

One measures the distance from the equator, the other from the Prime Meridian

Students strike to spur adults into climate action

Kids across the globe are protesting a failure of governments to cut greenhouse-gas emissions

a photo of a fossil of developing baby plesiosaur skeleton inside the mother's skeleton

Bones show ancient marine reptile was a big baby

Plesiosaurs likely needed this survival advantage in predator-infested seas

an illustration of Rapunzel letting down her hair from the window of a high tower

Here’s why Rapunzel’s hair makes a great rope ladder

Technically Fiction

Hair is much, much stronger than you might expect

Latest Headlines

A thunderstorm like this one might store a huge electric potential — more than a billion volts.

Ian Froome/Unsplash

Thunderstorms hold stunningly high voltage

This is Strokker geyser in Iceland. It is only a short distance away from the famous Geysir that gives geysers their name.

Hannah Beker/Wikimedia Commons (CC-SA-3.0)

Scientists Say: Geyser

About the size of a deer, the newly discovered Moros intrepidus (illustrated) is one of the smallest tyrannosaurs known.

Mini tyrannosaur fills big evolutionary gap

Your conscience is what helps you decide whether your actions or impulses are good or bad, right or wrong.

JamesBrey/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Psychology

What part of us knows right from wrong?

Math & Technology

Ana Humphrey (center), Samuel Weismann (left) and Adam Ardeishar (right) took home first, second and third place in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search.

C. Ayers/SSP

Exoplanet hunting, HIV-fighting and math garner big prizes for teens

an illustration showing a network of tiny robots

Botnets are big armies of zombie computers.

BeeBright/iStockphoto

Technology

Rise of the botnets

A short video clip of the OroBOT walking as seen from overhead

Researchers built a robot called OroBOT to re-create the way that Orobates pabsti might have walked. That four-legged creature lived some 290 million years ago.

Tomislav Horvat and K. Melo/EPFL Lausanne