Science News for Students

Warming pushes lobsters and other species to seek cooler homes

a photo of a field of Mount Rainier wildflowers

With the help of volunteers, scientists are monitoring wildflowers on Mount Rainier as part of climate change research.

Mount Rainier National Park/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Photographing wildflowers and other ways you can help fight climate change

Increasing ocean temperatures have caused populations of many fish and shellfish to plummet. As a result, the amount that can be caught without depleting fish populations has declined by an average of 4.1 percent worldwide.

NEFSC/NOAA

Oceans

Oceans’ fever means fewer fish

This painted sign, by Xavier Cortada, is a marker that someone can plant in their yard. It shows how high the sea would have to rise to flood the owner’s home (5 feet, or 1.5 meters).

Xavier Cortada

Culture

Using art to show the threat of climate change

Top Story

Strange lake belches flammable gas in the high Arctic

Lake Esieh is spewing vast amounts of methane — a potent greenhouse gas

Computers & Electronics

These scientists help rescue ‘broken’ digital art

Hardware and software updates can damage computer-based art — and restoring it is tricky

a photo of a kangaroo rat, a small white and brown rodent, on a sandy surface

Desert kangaroo rats ninja-kick attacking rattlesnakes

High-speed cameras uncover the rodents’ death-defying tricks

a photo of two hagfish in a tank, one is coiled and centered in the image

A new fossil shows how hagfish went back to basics

The find alters our view of fish evolution

a blurry person sits with their head on their knees against a wall, a scale is in focus in the foreground

Science Education

This is what happens when someone’s health gets worse, after it had been getting better

Scientists Say: Relapse

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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

Eureka! Lab

Weather & Climate

These teens have some ideas for stopping climate change

Commonly called ‘shooting stars,’ these streaks of light in the night sky are meteors caused by bits of space rock crashing into Earth’s atmosphere. The ones shown here are part of the annual Geminid shower.

sripfoto/iStockphoto

Catch a ‘shooting star’ this month — and most others

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

Trending

a computer simulated image showing Earth and the lines of its magnetic field

New data suggest that humans may join birds, bacteria and certain other organisms in being able to sense Earth’s magnetic field (illustrated).

vjanez/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Brain

People may indeed have a sixth sense — for magnetism

the first ever photo of a black hole, an orange and red aura surrounding a dark round spot

The first image of a black hole shows a bright ring with a dark, central spot. That ring is a bright disk of gas orbiting the supermassive behemoth in the galaxy M87. The spot is the black hole’s shadow.

Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration

Here’s the first picture of a black hole

As climate change warms the Atlantic, the range of the lobster is shifting north. Lobsters are just one of many species around the world reacting to global warming.

temmuzcan/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Warming pushes lobsters and other species to seek cooler homes

a white labrador dog wearing a red harness is trotting on a green lawn, its head is lowered as though sniffing the ground

Being stressed or afraid may alter a person’s usual scent. That can throw dogs off the person’s track. People with a particular version of a gene may have a bigger change in odor when stressed, data show.

fsHH/Pixabay

The smell of fear may make it hard for dogs to track some people

Brain

People may indeed have a sixth sense — for magnetism

Brain waves hint that humans might possess an ability similar to that seen in some other animals

a cape robin-chat feeding a red-chested cuckoo chick

When parenting goes cuckoo

Brood parasites trick another bird, fish or other animal into taking care of their young

a photo of two chess players shaking hands

Shaking hands could transfer your DNA — leaving it on things you never touched

People can transfer DNA from others after they touch them, potentially complicating a crime scene, new data show

The smell of fear may make it hard for dogs to track some people

Trained dogs had trouble sniffing out people with a short form of one gene that turns on in people who are stressed

Psychology

Art can make science easier to remember

Using art in science class helped students retain what they learned longer

Blogs

People with mental illnesses such as eating disorders can relapse. They go back to harmful eating habits after they had been eating healthfully.

Tero Vesalainen/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Scientists Say: Relapse

This alligator is hanging out in a wetland.

cbeverly/GettyiStock

Have we found bigfoot? Not yeti

Scientists Say: Wetland

a girl and bigfoot take a selfie together in a sunny forest

Will you ever be able to take a true photo with bigfoot? Sorry, no.

RichLegg/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Technically Fiction

an illustration of a red dwarf behind a planet and moon crossing in front of it

Red dwarfs, such as the one pictured here glowing red in the background, are small. But that doesn’t mean that couldn’t have a planet or two, such as the planet and moon crossing in front.

D. Aguilar/Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics/NASA/Wikimedia Commons

Scientists Say: Red Dwarf

Body & Brain

New data suggest that humans may join birds, bacteria and certain other organisms in being able to sense Earth’s magnetic field (illustrated).

vjanez/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Brain

People may indeed have a sixth sense — for magnetism

fsHH/Pixabay

The smell of fear may make it hard for dogs to track some people

Using painting to illustrate science concepts may help cement the new knowledge, a new study suggests.

monkeybusinessimages/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Psychology

Art can make science easier to remember

a computer illustration of in vitro fertilization

Some researchers argue it’s too soon to alter the genes of human embryos, creating changes that can be inherited.

Christoph Burgstedt/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Science & Society

Some scientists ask for ban on the gene editing of babies

This is an area that’s inundated with water at least part of the time

Scientists Say: Wetland

Science & Society

Some scientists ask for ban on the gene editing of babies

It’s in response to a Chinese scientist’s program that led to several births from ‘edited’ embryos

Warming pushes lobsters and other species to seek cooler homes

In response to climate change, plants and animals are moving toward the poles, changing timing of important events and more

Photographing wildflowers and other ways you can help fight climate change

Even nonscientists can take part in climate and conservation research

Oceans

Oceans’ fever means fewer fish

Since 1930, some regions have seen a 35 percent drop in individuals that can be caught without harming fisheries

Space

Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration

Here’s the first picture of a black hole

a photo of the ALMA array, a group of radio telescopes with large dishes

A network of telescopes across the globe — including ALMA in Chile (partially shown here) — teamed up to create the Event Horizon Telescope. It’s a virtual radio dish almost as big as Earth.

Carlos Padilla/AUI/NRAO

It took a ‘virtual’ telescope to actually picture a black hole

an illustration of a black hole with stars in the background, a dark black circle with a white ring and aura around the outside of the hole

The story of how black holes (one illustrated) came to be accepted in science is a tale worth recounting.

Vchal/Istock/Getty Images Plus

A short history of black holes

An artist’s interpretation of what the black hole named Cygnus X-1 might look like. A large horizontal spinning disk is pulling in mass from a nearby blue star. Light shoots straight out from the top and the bottom of the middle of the disk.

This is an artist’s interpretation of what the black hole named Cygnus X-1 might look like. It formed after a large star imploded on itself. The intense gravity of this black hole is drawing in mass from a nearby blue star.

NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

Explainer: What are black holes?

Invention & Innovation

Kasper Moth-Poulsen shows off a solar collector

Kasper Moth-Poulsen shows off the solar collector his team used to test its liquid battery.

Johan Bodell/Chalmers University of Technology

Shape-shifting chemical is key to new solar battery

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

Earth

Earth’s core may have hardened just in time to save planet’s magnetic field

Planet’s solid heart may be much younger than thought

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

Shell shocked: Emerging impacts of our acidifying seas

Our changing climate is altering the chemistry of the ocean, and some animals are paying the price

Ocean acidification may ground swimming skates

In warmer and more acidic seas, little skates develop stronger jaws but weaker fins

a photo of a salmon jumping out of water

Ecology

Is ocean acidification knocking the scents out of salmon?

In more acidic water, the smell of danger doesn’t trigger salmon’s fear factor like it should

a photo showing a drill into the ice above Lake Mercer in Antarctica

Animal graveyard found in deeply buried Antarctic lake

Mud from Lake Mercer revealed tiny squashed creatures that resemble spiders and worms

Latest Headlines

Methane, a highly flammable gas, gets trapped under the ice of some Arctic lakes in winter. If a hole is punched through the ice, the escaping gas can be lit into a fireball.

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Weather & Climate

Strange lake belches flammable gas in the high Arctic

“Unfolding Object” is a piece of online artwork by John F. Simon Jr. It had stopped running on most modern computers. But a new digital fix lets viewers interact with this artistic creation again.

John F. Simon, Jr., Unfolding Object (2002), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Computers & Electronics

These scientists help rescue ‘broken’ digital art

Desert kangaroo rats like this one use powerful flying kicks and more to dodge deadly rattlesnake bites.

ninjarat.org

Desert kangaroo rats ninja-kick attacking rattlesnakes

Hagfish (two shown) are unlike most fish. They don’t have eyes, jaws or bones. Now, a newly discovered fossil helps explain how these fish got their unusual look.

SqueakyMarmot/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

A new fossil shows how hagfish went back to basics

Math & Technology

John F. Simon, Jr., Unfolding Object (2002), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Computers & Electronics

These scientists help rescue ‘broken’ digital art

A network of telescopes across the globe — including ALMA in Chile (partially shown here) — teamed up to create the Event Horizon Telescope. It’s a virtual radio dish almost as big as Earth.

Carlos Padilla/AUI/NRAO

It took a ‘virtual’ telescope to actually picture a black hole

Kasper Moth-Poulsen shows off the solar collector his team used to test its liquid battery.

Johan Bodell/Chalmers University of Technology

Shape-shifting chemical is key to new solar battery

a photo of a painting of a landsacpe with a huge mountain in the background

This oil painting by Georgia O’Keefe called “Pedernal” has zits. Researchers now know why these damaging bumps form. Chemicals in the paint have reacted to form small knobs.

Georgia O'Keeffe. Pedernal, 1941. Oil on canvas, 19 x 30 1/4 inches. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Gift of The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation. © Georgia O'Keeffe Museum [2006.5.172]