Science News for Students | News and feature articles from all fields of science
a photo of an Ethiopian farmer's hands holding wheat grown in his field against a blue sky
Top Story
As infections ravage food crops, scientists fight back
Everything from chocolate to wheat to citrus fruits are at risk from devastating diseases
a photo of a skinny mouse and a plump mouse side by side
Microbes
 
Obesity in mice caused by defects in their immune system
Related changes to gut microbe mix and fat absorption may be at work in people as well
a photo of one cat licking another cat
Animals
 
Giving cats a special food may one day help people with cat allergies
Pet-food maker Purina is studying how adding an antibody to cat chow curbs allergic reactions
two Microdocodon gracilis fossils side by side
Fossils
 
A flexible bone that aids mammals in chewing arose during the Jurassic
The structure may have helped give rise to the Age of Mammals
a WHO health worker screening people for Ebola
Health
 
Congo’s Ebola outbreak declared a public health emergency
There’s a high risk of the deadly virus spreading to neighboring countries

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Editor's Picks
a photo of an orange toad, Incilius periglenes, on a green leaf

The golden toad Incilius periglenes was once abundant in the cloud forests of Central America. Its last recorded sighting was May 15, 1989.

Papa Lima Whiskey/Wikimedia Commons

Ecology
A million species could vanish, and people are to blame
a photo of Steve Perlman rappeling down a verdant cliff over turquoise waters

Steve Perlman rappels down a cliff in the Wailau Valley on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. He is a botanist who has spent the last 45 years searching for, and protecting, rare plants

Hank Oppenheimer

Plants
Rare-plant hunters race against time to save at-risk species
an American lobster on a counter

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

Ecosystems
Warming pushes lobsters and other species to seek cooler homes
Trending
feral pig

A feral pig looks similar to the domestic pig from which it has descended. Each year, these animals are blamed for causing large and amazingly costly damage in the United States alone.

taviphoto/iStockphoto

Animals
Can anything stop the big pig invasion?
three zombies
Behavior
Zombies are real!
5 pretty faces
Psychology
What makes a pretty face?
a photo of one cat licking another cat

Most cat allergies are triggered by a protein called Fel d1. It’s carried in cats’ saliva. New research aims to disable the protein at its source.

SunRay BRI Cattery RU/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Animals
Giving cats a special food may one day help people with cat allergies
a photo of the nose of a white dog peeping out from under a plaid blanket
Body functions
 
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Olfactory
This word refers to your sense of smell
a young girl leaves flowers at a memorial in El Paso, Texas on August 3, 2019
Science & Society
 
Beyond the El Paso shooting: Racist words and acts harm kids’ health
U.S. doctors are tackling racism as a public health issue — one that can cause lifelong harm
a photo of 5 small white beads floating in the air with Asier Marzo in the background holding a pair of tweezers
Physics
 
Sound ways — literally — to move and filter things
The tiny force of a sound wave can get some impressive work done
mouse investigating lab equipment
Brain
 
Lasers make mice hallucinate
Scientists control brain cells to create fake visions
an illustration of dark matter "hairs" around earth
Physics
 
If dark matter particles could kill us, they would have already
Since they haven’t, scientists reason dark matter is small and light
Blogs
a photo of the nose of a white dog peeping out from under a plaid blanket

The nose is an olfactory organ. It’s involved in the sense of smell.

Chalabala/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Olfactory
a photo of a hummingbird hovering near a flower

Tiny hummingbirds have wings and hearts that beat very quickly. The frequency can be measured in hertz.

gjohnstonphoto/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Hertz
big bang

This image shows how the universe might have come to be, from a small dense point at left, through “quantum fluctuations” and then to the Big Bang. That time of rapid inflation left behind the light pattern that scientists see today — called cosmic background radiation. After a period called the “dark ages,” matter condensed and cooled, and stars and planets began to form. 

WMAP Science Team/NASA

Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Big Bang
an illustration showing how one cell divides into two cells during mitosis

One cell becomes two identical cells in the process called mitosis.  

frentusha/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Mitosis
Body & Brain
a photo of a skinny mouse and a plump mouse side by side

A study in mice showed altered immune cells led to weight gain. Gut microbes also played a role.  

Georgejason/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Microbes
Obesity in mice caused by defects in their immune system
a WHO health worker screening people for Ebola

A health worker with the World Health Organization works in Congo’s North Kivu Province. She is screening people who may have come in contact with someone sick with Ebola.

J. Kannah/WHO

Health
Congo’s Ebola outbreak declared a public health emergency
a young girl leaves flowers at a memorial in El Paso, Texas on August 3, 2019

A young girl leaves flowers near the site of the August 3 El Paso, Texas, mass shooting. The alleged gunman was reportedly motivated by racism.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Science & Society
Beyond the El Paso shooting: Racist words and acts harm kids’ health
mouse investigating lab equipment

A mouse checks out a tool that focuses lasers on specific nerve cells in the brain. Activating nerve cells with lasers makes mice “see” things that aren’t really there.

Sean Quirin, James Marshel, Cephra Raja and K. Deisseroth/Stanford Univ.

Brain
Lasers make mice hallucinate
an animated image showing magnetized liquid droplets floating in oil and spinning
Physics
 
Tiny new magnets are not only squishy but also liquid
The movement of external magnets might help control robots and more
a photo of a hummingbird hovering near a flower
Animals
 
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Hertz
This unit of frequency measures how often something repeats each second
a photo of clouds glowing blue after twilight
Weather & Climate
 
Explainer: Why some clouds glow in the dark
In a warming world, noctilucent clouds might become more common far from polar skies
a photo of notilucent clouds over water
Weather & Climate
 
Night-glowing clouds crept south this summer
More atmospheric moisture may be fueling these high-flying clouds that catch the sun’s rays after dark
sick boy
Health
 
Measles can harm a child’s defense against other serious infections
The virus can do this by giving certain immune memory cells a case of ‘amnesia’
Space
an illustration of a ploonet

There’s a new kind of space object out there. The “ploonet.” This is a moon that escaped the gravity of a gas giant. These ploonets might explain the existence of comets around distant stars, shown here in an artist’s illustration.

Lynnette Cook/Fuse/NASA

Planets
What do you call a moon that escapes its planet? A ‘ploonet’
an illustration of the galaxy Antila 2

Antlia 2, a dim galaxy that orbits the Milky Way, appears at the right in this illustration. It’s a bit bigger but has fewer stars than the Large Magellanic Cloud (left), which also orbits our Milky Way.

V. Belokurov/Univ. of Cambridge/CCA, based on the images by Marcus and Gail Davies and Robert Gendler

Astronomy
Caught: A ghost galaxy that may have hit ours long ago
an image of a plasma eruption from the sun

Blame it on the sun. Extreme space weather events begin when a blob of plasma erupts from the sun and streams toward Earth.

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Astronomy
Space weather forecast: Big storms ahead
an illustration of a spinning star, called a collapsar, releasing a long gamma-ray burst from either pole

A collapsar is a massive, spinning star that collapses into a black hole. That collapse releases a blast of light known as a long gamma-ray burst (illustrated). It also leads to an explosion in the star’s outer layers.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Astronomy
Dying stars can make gold as they collapse into black holes
Invention & Innovation
a photo of a discarded styrofoam cup on the ground surrounded by plants

Unlike this Styrofoam cup, made from plastic, a new kind of foam is biodegradable.

tomschirtz/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Materials Science
Trees may become the key to ‘greener’ foam products
a photo of a group of green disk robots

Individually, each of these disks can only expand and contract in place. But together, when loosely connected by magnets, they can complete a task like moving toward a light.

Shuguang Li/Columbia Engineering

Robotics
This robot’s parts are helpless alone, but turn smart as they team up
a young boy smiling and sitting in wheelchair, he's wearing a blue hat

Chemotherapy can cause your hair to fall out and make you feel tired and sick. Delivering the chemo drugs inside nanoparticles could reduce these side effects by making sure the drug goes only to the cancer.

Steve Debenport/E+/Getty Images

Chemistry
Remote-controlled nanoparticles could fight cancer — gently
Afghan minefield

This sign in English and Arabic warns pedestrians that live land mines still litter this field in Afghanistan.

manxman/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Physics
Heat signatures help track down old and still deadly land mines
an illustration showing how one cell divides into two cells during mitosis
Cells
 
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Mitosis
This is when a cell divides into two identical cells
Brain
 
High fat diet removes brain’s natural brake on overeating
The finding, from a study in mice, may point to a similar risk for people
an illustration of a ploonet
Planets
 
What do you call a moon that escapes its planet? A ‘ploonet’
Giant planets in other star systems might lose their moons, creating new planets
an illustration of the galaxy Antila 2
Astronomy
 
Caught: A ghost galaxy that may have hit ours long ago
The star system Antlia 2 turned up not far from where astronomers predicted the culprit should be
an illustration of a chemical compound that binds to the pit of a virus
Microbes
 
A surface crater in viruses may be key to keeping colds from spreading
Compounds that stick in the pit can stop the virus from reproducing
Latest Headlines
a photo of a skinny mouse and a plump mouse side by side

A study in mice showed altered immune cells led to weight gain. Gut microbes also played a role.  

Georgejason/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Microbes
Obesity in mice caused by defects in their immune system
a photo of an Ethiopian farmer's hands holding wheat grown in his field against a blue sky

Melese Tsegaye, a farmer in Kulumsa, Ethiopia, holds seed heads taken from stalks of wheat. Wheat is one of many crops that have suffered from disease outbreaks.

Peter Lowe/CIMMYT/Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Agriculture
As infections ravage food crops, scientists fight back
a photo of one cat licking another cat

Most cat allergies are triggered by a protein called Fel d1. It’s carried in cats’ saliva. New research aims to disable the protein at its source.

SunRay BRI Cattery RU/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Animals
Giving cats a special food may one day help people with cat allergies
two Microdocodon gracilis fossils side by side

The shrew-sized early mammal relative Microdocodon gracilis lived about 165 million years ago. Its fossil reveals that the shape of a flexible bone structure called a hyoid that aids in chewing and is similar to that of modern mammals.

Z.-X. Luo/Univ. of Chicago

Fossils
A flexible bone that aids mammals in chewing arose during the Jurassic
Math & Technology
a photo of 5 small white beads floating in the air with Asier Marzo in the background holding a pair of tweezers

Asier Marzo uses the force of sound to keep multiple plastic beads (white dots) floating in the air.

Asier Marzo

Physics
Sound ways — literally — to move and filter things
an animated image showing magnetized liquid droplets floating in oil and spinning

Three permanently magnetized liquid droplets floating in oil. As they spin in response to a rotating magnetic field, their activity wraps orange dye around themselves.

X. Liu et al/Science 2019

Physics
Tiny new magnets are not only squishy but also liquid
three different humanoid bots from vaguely human (left) to very human (right)

Very realistic humanlike robots, like the one on the right, are often perceived as eerie. Activity in a region of the brain that makes social judgments may be responsible for these uneasy feelings.

A.M. Rosenthal-vonder Pütten et al/J. Neuroscience 2019

Brain
This brain region may make lifelike robots creep you out
solar-cell panels

This artist’s drawing suggests what a floating solar-electricity and water-cleansing system might look like. Here the solar-cell panels are mounted atop a water clean-up system.

WENBIN WANG

Technology
Sunlight can produce energy and clean water at the same time