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 LEGO model of the Kibble balance
Top Story
Scientists vote to fix the world’s weight-loss problem
The kilogram as people know it will soon change forever
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 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

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 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
three zombies
Behavior
Zombies are real!
A photo of a tiny newborn baby mouse on a pile of woodshavings. A green-gloved human hand is pointing at the baby mouse.

This mouse pup has two biological fathers and no mother. It was made in a lab using stem cells made from two male mice. Such pups, including this one, lived a few days at most.

LEYUN WANG

Genetics
Gene editing creates mice with no mom
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
a mailbox is almost underwater in front of a house during a flood from Harvey
Weather & Climate
 
The odd ways that weather can unfold in a warming world
There may be more rainfall and droughts — as well as colder winters in Siberia
A nightime photo of a wildfire engulfing a forest across a lake. Everything is tinged bright red and orange from the flames.
Environment
 
Is climate change fanning megafires?
As wildfires grow in number and intensity, scientists look for the fingerprints of global warming
A black and white illustration of a cross section of the brain. The hippocampus is highlighted in blue.
Brain
 
How your brain is like a film editor
The hippocampus may slice our lives into ‘scenes’ suitable for storing as memories
a gray rat and a white rat sitting right next to each other and looking toward the right of the screen
Brain
 
The immune system has a say in how hard ‘teen’ rats play
As the brain’s immune cells chomp up the ends of neurons, male rats stop wrestling — and grow up
Blogs
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
bubble universe

The multiverse is the idea that there are loads of other universes out there. They might have nothing to do with us. Or they might be alternate versions of our reality.

fotojog/iStockPhoto

Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Multiverse
warning doctor

To stop an illness from spreading, doctors may keep those exposed to the illness in a small area. This is called a quarantine.

Thiago Santos/iStockPhoto

Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Quarantine
Body & Brain
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
a picture of a pile of dietary supplement pills, a pill bottle, and a backdrop showing nutritional information

Of nearly 800 dietary supplements that the FDA found tainted with potentially harmful drugs, most were normally prescribed by doctors to aid male sexual “enhancement,” weight loss or muscle-building.

Monticello/iStockphoto

Health
Many food supplements unlawfully contain drugs
a girl using a smartphone while sitting outside

How much screen time is too much? Kids who spend less than two hours a day on screens perform better on cognitive tests.

filipefrazao/iStockPhoto

Behavior
Less screentime linked to better memory, learning in kids
a jewel wasp and a cockroach face off
Animals
 
Here’s how cockroaches fight off zombie-makers
When attacked by brain-stinging wasps, kicking really helps
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
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
Animals
 
Giraffes inherit their spots from mom
The pattern of fur splotches may also indicate how well a calf will be able to survive
a microscopic image of a chigger snacking on human skin
Health
 
Chigger ‘bites’ may trigger an allergy to red meat
The tiny, red, spider-like parasites can provoke rare food allergies in some people
fawn in woods
Ecology
 
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Understory
This is the forest layer beneath the tallest trees but above the ground
Science & Society
 
Teen vaping of marijuana raises concerns about addiction
This experimentation puts developing brains at risk
a screen capture from the film "First Man" showing Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong before boarding the Apollo 11 spacecraft
Space
 
The movie ‘First Man’ captures early spaceflight's terror
This Neil Armstrong biopic takes a surprisingly somber tone
Latest Headlines
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
Physics
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
Young Scientists
Prepping for drone exploration of Mars
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
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
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