Science News for Students

These are facts that are collected together so that they can be analyzed

Scientists Say: Data

a radar map showing hurricane Harvey's eyewall

Explainer: The furious eye(wall) of a hurricane or typhoon

From ‘mini-swirls’ to giant rolls of wind, the eyewall is where the real fury resides

a satellite image of Hurricane Michael on October 9, 2018

Hurricane Michael slams into Florida, then speeds north

The worst damage occurred in the path of its eyewall

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Editor's Picks

Technology

How to stop a speeding bullet

Health

Outdoor time is good for your eyes

Oops! Is that muffin still safe to eat? The latest DIY Science video tests if the five-second rule is true.

Explainr

Eureka! Lab

Science Education

The five-second rule: Designing an experiment

Trending

This computer rendering shows what the 600-meter-long (2,000-foot) Ocean Cleanup system will look like floating in the North Pacific. Currents will push on the boom to form a u-shape. The system is designed to trap bits of plastic that boats can collect later.

The Ocean Cleanup

Enormous floating barrier will corral ocean trash

a blue gloved hand holding a plate with bacteria on it

From the great outdoors to our internal organs, the world is awash in unseen bacteria (some seen growing on plate here). Most people assume (unfairly) that these germs are all dangerous. Biologists know better. Studying these poorly understood microbes could better reveal how they function as the "invisible backbone of life."

jarun011/iStockphoto

Microbes

Bacteria are all around us — and that’s okay

a photo of a young woman putting in a contact lens, reflected in a mirror

One in five people who wear contact lenses flush their used eyewear down the sink or toilet. That plastic pollutes the environment and can harm wildlife.

STUDIOGRANDOUEST/iStockphoto

Don’t flush your contact lenses

a lit cigarette resting on an ashtray, smoke is rising from the cigarette

Lingering cigarette smoke can be inhaled by others. Teens who breathe this in may become more susceptible to disease now, then face a higher risk in adulthood from lung disease.

Tonkovic/iStockphoto

Toxicology

Studies report new risks to teens from secondhand smoke

Cool Job: Making stellar connections

Astrophysicist Paula Jofré reaches across disciplines to link stars across the galaxy

a teenage girl sitting in the front seat of the car with her hands on the wheel, looking into the backseat of the car

Behavior

Analyze This!

Analyze This: A good reason to drive with an adult in the car

Teens with new driver’s licenses take more risks than do those who are just learning to drive

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

Robotics

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

Given bendy, stretchy skin, everyday objects can morph into useful — or just adorable — robots

Don’t flush your contact lenses

The plastics in them can pollute water and be mistaken for food by aquatic animals

Enormous floating barrier will corral ocean trash

Critics question whether it will do much good

Blogs

These graphs aren’t data. They are graphs made to understand sets of data. But the data set itself is probably just a list of numbers and not as pretty.

Yok46233042/iStockPhoto

Analyze This: A good reason to drive with an adult in the car

Scientists Say: Data

Teens are eager to drive alone once they get their driver’s license. But it is much safer to keep driving with an adult.

lisafx/iStockphoto

Analyze This!

This is an image of our sun, which is a yellow dwarf star. The tiny black dot at the upper left corner is the planet Venus passing in front of it.

NASA/SDO, AIA

Scientists Say: Yellow dwarf

Doctor Who’s TARDIS may look small on the outside, but it’s got plenty of space inside. How does that work?

Babbel1996/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5)

Technically Fiction

Doctor Who’s TARDIS is bigger on the inside — but how?

Body & Brain

Teen drivers are more likely to get into car crashes than adult drivers. Inexperience and a greater inattentiveness to what’s happening on the road play appear to foster those youthful accidents, data show.

bowdenimages/iStockphoto

Behavior

Here’s what puts teen drivers at greatest risk of a crash

Lingering cigarette smoke can be inhaled by others. Teens who breathe this in may become more susceptible to disease now, then face a higher risk in adulthood from lung disease.

Tonkovic/iStockphoto

Toxicology

Studies report new risks to teens from secondhand smoke

A photo of an array of protein rich foods including red meat, fish, nuts, beans, eggs, chickpeas, avacado, spinach and broccoli

Many foods, such as the ones shown here, are rich in protein. In the body, proteins act as biochemical machines that do the work of cells.

samael334/iStockphoto

Body functions

Explainer: What are proteins?

a backpack with school supplies and a cell phone

Simply having a cell phone can reduce stress caused by social rejection.

seb_ra /iStockphoto

Psychology

Smartphones may serve as digital security blankets

Scientists Say: Yellow dwarf

This is a medium-sized star — like our sun

Physics

Technically Fiction

Doctor Who’s TARDIS is bigger on the inside — but how?

Scientists have some ideas about how the Doctor’s blue box might work

Toxicology

Studies report new risks to teens from secondhand smoke

The pollution seems to boost risk of subtle immediate harm — then early death from lung disease as adults

Microbes

Bacteria are all around us — and that’s okay

Although these microbes remain poorly understood, they could prove key to protecting life across the planet

Chemistry

Three take home chemistry Nobel for harnessing protein ‘evolution’

The scientists created bio-based techniques to speed up the development of drugs, fuels and more

Space

Astrophysicist Paula Jofré wants to find links between all the stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way.

MARÍA CECILIA ABARCA/UNIVERSIDAD DIEGO PORTALES

Cool Job: Making stellar connections

With these telescopes of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile, astronomers discovered the most distant galaxy that seems to be filled with dark matter.

C. Malin/ESO

Distant galaxy seems filled with dark matter

fountains of lava erupt behind palm trees at night

At around 8:45 p.m. on May 5, a new fissure from Kilauea began sputtering lava in this residential neighborhood. Within 15 minutes, fountains of molten rock were spewing up to heights of 70 meters (230 feet).

U.S. Geological Survey

Earth

Nine big stories you may have missed this summer

an image of Jupiter showing the orbits of the 12 newly discovered moons around the planet

Of 12 newly discovered moons of Jupiter (illustrated in bold, orange, blue and green), one orbits in the opposite direction of its neighbors (arrows show orbit direction). Four moons discovered by the spacecraft Galileo are also shown (purple).

Roberto Molar Candanosa/Carnegie Institution for Science

Planets

Jupiter has 12 more moons than we knew about — and one is a weirdo

Invention & Innovation

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

Using new technologies, researchers have 3-D printed a flower whose petals curl when immersed in water. This shows how 3-D printing can be used to print 4-D objects.

H.J. Qi et al.

Materials Science

Light-sensitive ‘ink’ gives 4-D printing more wiggle room

Body functions

Explainer: What are proteins?

These tiny machines perform tasks for cells throughout the body

Psychology

Smartphones may serve as digital security blankets

The trick seems to be having a phone on hand — but not using it — in awkward social situations

Donna Strickland surrounded by equipment in a laser lab

Physics

Dazzling laser advances bring physicists a Nobel Prize

Work by the three made possible optical ‘tweezers’ and amazingly intense beams of light

a gentoo penguin jumping into the ocean off a rocky outcropping

Animals

This penguin prey knows how to fight back

Scientists filmed ‘epic fight scenes’ below the ocean’s surface

an artists illustration of a car as the body's immune system

Body functions

Immune targeting of cancers wins two a 2018 Nobel Prize

New therapies based on their ideas focus body’s immune cells against cancers

Latest Headlines

The San Clemente loggerhead shrike lives on San Clemente Island off the California coast. This mild-looking songbird delivers potentially fatal shakings to small vertebrates — such as the dead lizard it now holds.

Daniel W. Clark, U.S. Navy

Animals

These songbirds can fling and shake mice to death

These graphs aren’t data. They are graphs made to understand sets of data. But the data set itself is probably just a list of numbers and not as pretty.

Yok46233042/iStockPhoto

Science Education

Scientists Say: Data

Doughnut of intense storm activity swirls about Harvey’s eyewall (green ring at center with smattering of red and yellow). This radar imagery captured hours before the hurricane’s landfall near Rockport, Texas on August 26, 2017.

National Weather Service, GR2 Analyst, M. Cappucci

Explainer: The furious eye(wall) of a hurricane or typhoon

Michael, shown here hours before it made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane, gathered strength from unusually warm Gulf of Mexico waters.

NASA

Hurricane Michael slams into Florida, then speeds north

Math & Technology

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

The Carr Fire burned 930 square kilometers, destroyed more than 1,000 buildings and killed seven people during the summer of 2018. That made it one of the most destructive wildfires in California history.

Eric Coulter, Bureau of Land Management/Flickr