Science News for Students | News and feature articles from all fields of science

Climate Change Chronicles

A photo of Levi Draheim on a sunny day standing in front of a beach. His green shirt says "Climate Change is Real"

Twenty-one young people — including Levi Draheim, 11, from Satellite Beach, Fla. — have sued the U.S. government for actions that they say contributed to climate change.

Robin Loznak/Our Children’s Trust

Science & Society
Teens and tweens sue United States over climate change
a mailbox is almost underwater in front of a house during a flood from Harvey

Hurricane Harvey caused flooding in many areas around Houston, Texas, in 2017. Scientists now know that climate change made the storm wetter.

Revolution Messaging/Flickr (PUBLIC DOMAIN MARK 1.0)

Weather & Climate
The odd ways that weather can unfold in a warming world
A nightime photo of a wildfire engulfing a forest across a lake. Everything is tinged bright red and orange from the flames.

Extreme wildfires are becoming more common in many parts of the world.

Pinderphoto/iStockphoto

Environment
Is climate change fanning megafires?
A photo of Folsom Lake in California from October 2015. There is no water to be seen. A white pick-up truck is driving diagonally from the left to the right along a dry path.

A photo of Folsom Lake in California from October 2015. There is no water to be seen. A white pick-up truck is driving diagonally from the left to the right along a dry path.

MCMLXXXI/iStockphoto

Weather & Climate
Fingerprint of climate change shows up in some extreme weather
an aerial image of the Maldives

Due to impending sea level rise, this island nation in the Indian Ocean — the Maldives — is among the most threatened anywhere by climate change.

SHAHEE ILYAS/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Weather & Climate
Half a degree can make a world of difference
a person holding a bug up to their mouth to take a bite
Top Story
Why can’t bugs be grub?
Researchers are studying why some people think eating insects is gross — and how to change that
An artists interpretation of a person smelling and directions (arrows) in their brain
Brain
 
People may be literally led by their noses
A new study suggests senses of smell and navigation are linked in the brain
antelope fossil
Archaeology
 
Fossils hint ancient humans passed through a green Arabia
Ancient animal bones and stone tools from the now-harsh region date back 300,000 years
hummingbird
Plants
 
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Nectar
This is a sugary fluid secreted by plants to attract pollinators
a photo of volunteers accepting donations in a warehouse
Young Scientists
 
Eureka! Lab
New apps match donated items with people in need
Teens developed them to aid the hungry or people suffering in the wake of major disasters

Sponsor

Editor's Picks
a photo of a forest with fall foliage

Fall foliage transforms trees of green into stunning shades of yellow and red.

Shaiith/iStockphoto

Plants
A Change in Leaf Color
fall leaves
Eureka! Lab
Chemistry
A teen turns an autumn chore into a science project
Eureka! Lab
Weather & Climate
Predicting a wildfire with data from space
Trending
A nightime photo of a wildfire engulfing a forest across a lake. Everything is tinged bright red and orange from the flames.

Extreme wildfires are becoming more common in many parts of the world.

Pinderphoto/iStockphoto

Environment
Is climate change fanning megafires?
a fire truck heading towards the Carr Fire

Dramatic image of a fire truck going in to fight the Carr Fire outside Redding, Calif., in late July. On July 23, the intense heat and debris from this fire created a fire tornado.

E.L. Karey

Weather & Climate
California’s Carr Fire spawned a true fire tornado
three zombies
Behavior
Zombies are real!
a LEGO model of the Kibble balance

Starting in May 2019, the kilogram will be defined by measurements from a device called the Kibble balance. This is a LEGO model of that device, at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology.

NIST

Physics
Scientists vote to fix the world’s weight-loss problem
an image from a "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grimwald" with an adult wizard using a magic wand and students looking on
Physics
 
Technically Fiction
Harry Potter can apparate. Can you?
Physics says leave it to the electrons
a computer illustration of a Martian landscape and drone designed to explore Mars
Young Scientists
 
Eureka! Lab
Prepping for drone exploration of Mars
Tween builds wind tunnel to test vehicle parts under conditions expected on the Red Planet
a LEGO model of the Kibble balance
Physics
 
Scientists vote to fix the world’s weight-loss problem
The kilogram as people know it will soon change forever
a fire truck heading towards the Carr Fire
Weather & Climate
 
California’s Carr Fire spawned a true fire tornado
Not a common fire-whirl, these are amazingly rare freaks of nature
a photo of thale cress, a bioengineered plant, with small white flowers
Plants
 
Plants don’t grow well when always on high alert
Scientists bred a weed to make insect-repelling chemicals all the time
Blogs
hummingbird

This hummingbird is sticking its long bill inside a flower for a nectar snack.

freebilly/iStockPhoto

Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Nectar
a photo of volunteers accepting donations in a warehouse

A California teen has developed an app that could better match food donations for the needy with food banks and other charities.

monkeybusinessimages/iStockphoto

Eureka! Lab
New apps match donated items with people in need
an image from a "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grimwald" with an adult wizard using a magic wand and students looking on

In the world of Harry Potter, magic users teleport instantly. Could we?

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Technically Fiction
Harry Potter can apparate. Can you?
a computer illustration of a Martian landscape and drone designed to explore Mars

James Fagan, 12, of Riverside, Calif., built a wind tunnel that could be used to test scale models of drones intended to explore Mars (concept above) in realistic atmospheric conditions.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Eureka! Lab
Prepping for drone exploration of Mars
Body & Brain
An artists interpretation of a person smelling and directions (arrows) in their brain

The brain tangles up senses of smell and direction, a new study suggests.

E. Otwell

Brain
People may be literally led by their noses
a person holding a bug up to their mouth to take a bite

Billions of people around the world regularly eat bugs. Why do so many Westerners find the idea disgusting?

MauMyHaT/istockphoto

Culture
Why can’t bugs be grub?
A black and white illustration of a cross section of the brain. The hippocampus is highlighted in blue.

In a new study, the hippocampus (blue) was active during parts of films when one event ended and another began. Marking such boundaries may help the brain package ongoing experiences as separate memories.

Henry Vandyke Carter - Henry Gray/Wikimedia Commons (PubDom)

Brain
How your brain is like a film editor
a gray rat and a white rat sitting right next to each other and looking toward the right of the screen

When rats are the human equivalent of teenagers, they love to wrestle with their BFFs. As they grow up, they chill out. A new study now offers clues to why. 

GlobalP/iStockPhoto

Brain
The immune system has a say in how hard ‘teen’ rats play
Technology
 
Super-water-repellent surfaces can generate energy
They might even boost the efficiency of some batteries
a photo of the skeleton of Sue, a T. rex skeleton at Chicago's Field Museum, against a white background
Fossils
 
T. rex pulverized bones with an incredible amount of force
A strong bite and powerful teeth let the dinosaur get at nutritious marrow and salts
bubble universe
Space
 
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Multiverse
This is the idea that there are lots of universes out there, each with a different reality
A photo of a tiny newborn baby mouse on a pile of woodshavings. A green-gloved human hand is pointing at the baby mouse.
Genetics
 
Gene editing creates mice with no mom
The first rodents with two biological dads only survived a few days
A photo of Levi Draheim on a sunny day standing in front of a beach. His green shirt says "Climate Change is Real"
Science & Society
 
Teens and tweens sue United States over climate change
They claim government acts that promote the use of fossil fuels deny basic rights to them and future generations
Space
an illustration of the Kepler space telescope in space

Here’s an artist’s depiction of the Kepler space telescope at work scouting planets orbiting distant stars. Over its lifetime, this spacecraft turned up more than 2,700.

NASA

Space
R.I.P. Kepler, the planet-hunting telescope
a photo of the Arecibo radio telescope from the air

The Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico (here) has been used for decades in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). But these efforts have searched only a very tiny portion of the skies, new calculations suggest.

Courtesy NAIC-Arecibo Observatory, an NSF facility

Space
Only a small fraction of space has been searched for aliens
a screen capture from the film "First Man" showing Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong before boarding the Apollo 11 spacecraft

In this image from First Man, Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong walks to the Apollo 11 spacecraft before taking off for his historic moon landing.

Universal Pictures

Space
The movie ‘First Man’ captures early spaceflight's terror
an illustration of a dark exomoon orbiting a bright Jupiter-sized planet

The Hubble Space Telescope may have spotted a Neptune-sized moon orbiting a Jupiter-sized planet, as shown in this illustration.

Dan Durda

Space
Hubble may have spotted a possible ‘exomoon’
Invention & Innovation
860_hydrophobic_power.png

When water droplets bead up on a surface, it’s because that surface has features that repel the water. The water doesn’t penetrate the surface or flatten out across it like a pool. This concept is key to a new energy technology.

Antonistock/iStockphoto

Technology
Super-water-repellent surfaces can generate energy
860_Lem_tree_tape.png

Tape is convenient but not environmentally friendly. A new adhesive for tape comes from trees instead of crude oil.

angintaravichian/iStockphoto

Materials Science
Adhesive from trees could make tape more eco-friendly
Tarzan the robot swinging over a field of crops

Tarzan, shown here, travels over crop fields with an energy-efficient swinging motion. One day, such robots might help with farm work.

Georgia Tech Research Institute

Robotics
Tarzan the robot was actually inspired by a sloth
a photo of a man watching tv with his hands clasped behind his head

A TV delivers content through images and sound. But for those who cannot see or hear, watching TV is impossible without special technology.

BrianAJackson/iStockphoto

Computers & Electronics
New tech helps deaf-blind people ‘watch’ TV
A photo of an ancient child's skull lying in dirt facing toward the right side of the screen. The skull has a stone in his or her mouth.
Archaeology
 
Ancient child’s ‘vampire burial’ suggests Romans feared the walking dead
The 10-year-old’s skeleton had a stone placed in the mouth to prevent the child from rising again
A zombie stumbling towards the viewer with arms outstretched. Other zombies can be seen backlight by a bright light farther down a hallway.
Microbes
 
Technically Fiction
Bacteria and bugs will save us from the zombie apocalypse
Dead bodies decompose quickly
an underwater photo of mosquito larvae
Pollution
 
Microplastics take flight in the bellies of mosquitoes
The pollution stays in these insects as they grow from larvae to adults, putting birds at risk
a map showing all the major 2018 storms that trekked across the Eastern Pacific to North America's West Coast
Weather & Climate
 
Eastern Pacific records its most energetic hurricane season
Scientists suspect this may be a symptom of climate change — and more scary storms to come
tapeworm gut
Ecology
 
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Parasite
These organisms benefit while their hosts suffer
Latest Headlines
An artists interpretation of a person smelling and directions (arrows) in their brain

The brain tangles up senses of smell and direction, a new study suggests.

E. Otwell

Brain
People may be literally led by their noses
antelope fossil

Researchers at a site in Saudi Arabia dug up ancient stone tools and animal fossils, including these teeth and jaw bones from an antelope.

PALEODESERTS PROJECT, IAN R. CARTWRIGHT

Archaeology
Fossils hint ancient humans passed through a green Arabia
a person holding a bug up to their mouth to take a bite

Billions of people around the world regularly eat bugs. Why do so many Westerners find the idea disgusting?

MauMyHaT/istockphoto

Culture
Why can’t bugs be grub?
hummingbird

This hummingbird is sticking its long bill inside a flower for a nectar snack.

freebilly/iStockPhoto

Scientists Say
Plants
Scientists Say: Nectar
Math & Technology
a LEGO model of the Kibble balance

Starting in May 2019, the kilogram will be defined by measurements from a device called the Kibble balance. This is a LEGO model of that device, at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology.

NIST

Physics
Scientists vote to fix the world’s weight-loss problem
860_hydrophobic_power.png

When water droplets bead up on a surface, it’s because that surface has features that repel the water. The water doesn’t penetrate the surface or flatten out across it like a pool. This concept is key to a new energy technology.

Antonistock/iStockphoto

Technology
Super-water-repellent surfaces can generate energy
A photo of Folsom Lake in California from October 2015. There is no water to be seen. A white pick-up truck is driving diagonally from the left to the right along a dry path.

A photo of Folsom Lake in California from October 2015. There is no water to be seen. A white pick-up truck is driving diagonally from the left to the right along a dry path.

MCMLXXXI/iStockphoto

Weather & Climate
Fingerprint of climate change shows up in some extreme weather
a horse stuffed animal with white wraps around its legs is walking across a the screen against a black background, electric wires trail behind it

A new bendable, stretchable skin can wrap around inanimate objects — such as this stuffed horse’s legs — creating a soft robot.

J.W. Booth et al./Sci Robotics 2018

Robotics
Soft robots get their power from the skin they’re in