Science News for Students

Brain’s immune system can play role in weight gain

At least in mice, certain immune cells in the brain can make a fatty diet more fattening

Emily Koehne (right) interviewed Sylvia Acevedo (left), leader of the Girl Scouts of the United States, for her YouTube video series about women in STEM.

E. Koehne

Young Scientists

Eureka! Lab

Teen interviews science role models to inspire others

Armed with a GoPro, a high school student informs her peers about STEM careers

This girl is using an inhaler to treat an asthma attack. Kids who suffer from racial or ethnic discrimination are more likely to develop a type of asthma that daily medicines may not control very well.

IPGGutenbergUKLtd/iStockphoto

Racial discrimination may aggravate asthma, study finds

Kids of color suffer more from asthma, and doctors are digging deeper to find out why

The white-spotted bamboo shark uses its shoulders to help slurp up unsuspecting prey.

yvonne n/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

These sharks get help swallowing from their shoulders

Swinging their pectoral bones forward and back moves the sharks’ food along

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Toxicology

Concerns explode over new health risks of vaping

People have reported animals acting strangely during an eclipse. Birds fall silent and bees return to their hives, as if it were nightfall.

darios44/iStockphoto

What do animals do during a solar eclipse?

More U.S. teens now vape from electronic cigarettes than smoke conventional tobacco cigarettes. They may think the high-tech devices yield a safe kick from nicotine. New studies suggest that even vaping may pose serious health hazards.

Toxicology

Vaping may harm the lungs

Blogs

Emily Koehne (right) interviewed Sylvia Acevedo (left), leader of the Girl Scouts of the United States, for her YouTube video series about women in STEM.

E. Koehne

Eureka! Lab

Teen interviews science role models to inspire others

This is the moon Io in transit across the face of Jupiter.

NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Scientists Say: Transit

This is an example of a histology specimen. In this case, it’s a tiny piece of a human lung.

GRUMELLI ET AL, 2004 (CC-BY-2.0)

Scientists Say: Histology

This time-lapse photo shows the stages of a November 2012 solar eclipse in the South Pacific.

RICK FIENBERG/TRAVELQUEST INTERNATIONAL/WILDERNESS TRAVEL (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

What scientists hope to learn from Great American Eclipse

The August 21 event offers a perfect chance to investigate big questions about our star

People have reported animals acting strangely during an eclipse. Birds fall silent and bees return to their hives, as if it were nightfall.

darios44/iStockphoto

What do animals do during a solar eclipse?

A citizen-science project gathers data to put science behind the tales

Sunlight strips electrons from atoms in Earth’s atmosphere. This process creates a charged layer called the ionosphere. But during a solar eclipse, all of that stops.

NASA

Light & Radiation

Scientists probe how an eclipse affects Earth’s atmosphere

Using smartphones and radio kits, people will track how radio waves move through the ionosphere

This is the moon Io in transit across the face of Jupiter.

NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Space

This is when a planetary body passes in front of a star, or a moon in front of a planet

Scientists Say: Transit

Concrete, once hardened and then powdered, may be able to remove certain pollutants spewed by electric power plants.

tortoon/iStockphoto

Pollution

Can concrete conquer air pollution?

In the lab, powdered concrete sops up sulfur dioxide

Body & Brain

When mice eat high-fat diets, they can become obese. That might be partly due to immune cells in their brains, a new study shows.

Georgejason/istockphoto

Brain’s immune system can play role in weight gain

IPGGutenbergUKLtd/iStockphoto

Racial discrimination may aggravate asthma, study finds

Mindfulness slows the process of eating, which improves the experience and makes smaller amounts of foods more enjoyable.

Chris6/iStockphoto

Behavior

Mindfulness in eating pays the body big dividends

Football collisions can lead to head injuries. New data from brains donated to science show that from high school players to former pros, many men sustained serious permanent damage. And how much damage occurred was not always obvious, based on symptoms reported by the men’s families.

Eugene_Onischenko/iStockphoto

Many U.S. football players had brain disease, data show

Invention & Innovation

Robotics

Underwater robot vacuums up lionfish

Materials Science

Nanowires made from silver are super stretchy

Technology

These antennas turn anything into a radio station

Technology

‘Nanostraws’ safely sneak a peek inside cells

Eugene_Onischenko/iStockphoto

Many U.S. football players had brain disease, data show

Severe disease showed up in 99 percent of pro players whose brains had been donated to science

An artist’s rendering of nerve cells in the brain. A mild head trauma can cause temporary swelling in parts of those cells.

ktsimage/iStockphoto

Mild brain injury can cause bead-like swellings in brain cells

Mild head hits cause small, temporary swellings in cells — and protein buildups, mouse data show

Tricks using the vapor clouds from e-cigarettes and other vaping devices are popular among some teens. Researchers now worry these behaviors could boost health risks. Here, a vaper creates a “waterfall.”

Aleksandr Pogudin/iStockphoto

Vape tricks could increase health risks, experts warn

Stunts could expose teens to higher levels of harmful chemicals, scientists worry

Giant sea spiders may look strange, but their circulatory system is even weirder, new data show.

Tim Dwyer

Giant Antarctic sea spiders breathe really strangely

These creepy-crawlers absorb oxygen through their skin and pump blood with their guts

This is an example of a histology specimen. In this case, it’s a tiny piece of a human lung.

GRUMELLI ET AL, 2004 (CC-BY-2.0)

Cells

Scientists Say: Histology

This is the study of the microscopic parts of plants or animals

Cool Jobs

To reach the deepest depths of the oceans, scientists must rely on rovers to take them there — or to do the exploring as they remain atop the waves.

Steve Ross, UNC-W/NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration/Flickr (CC-BY 2.0)

Oceans

Cool Jobs: Science deep beneath the waves

Sailing along a zip line can be a spectacular way to take in the local scenery.

JHVEPhoto/iStockphoto

STEM Careers

Cool Jobs: Bringing you summer thrills

Ecosystems

Cool Jobs: Bringing caves' dark secrets to light

Science & Society

Cool Jobs: New tools to solve crimes

Space

This time-lapse photo shows the stages of a November 2012 solar eclipse in the South Pacific.

RICK FIENBERG/TRAVELQUEST INTERNATIONAL/WILDERNESS TRAVEL (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

What scientists hope to learn from Great American Eclipse

Artists’ illustration of synestia, a spinning disk of vaporized rock that looks like a jelly-filled doughnut with a small, solid core (here, in gray).

S. LOCK/HARVARD UNIV.

Planets

Early Earth may have been a hot doughnut

They may look like chubby microscopic caterpillars, but water bears are no joke. These creatures will probably live long after humans are gone.

Eraxion/istockphoto

This tiny animal is apocalypse-proof

The galaxies M81 (left) and M82 (right) may be exchanging gas. Supernova explosions in M82 would toss out gas that could be pulled toward M81. That could help M81 bulk up.

Markus Schopfer/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Half the Milky Way may be stolen material

Artists’ illustration of synestia, a spinning disk of vaporized rock that looks like a jelly-filled doughnut with a small, solid core (here, in gray).

S. LOCK/HARVARD UNIV.

Planets

Early Earth may have been a hot doughnut

Our planet may have spent part of its violent infancy as a geological ‘jelly doughnut’

To reach the deepest depths of the oceans, scientists must rely on rovers to take them there — or to do the exploring as they remain atop the waves.

Steve Ross, UNC-W/NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration/Flickr (CC-BY 2.0)

Oceans

Cool Jobs: Science deep beneath the waves

These scientists explore the sea’s mysterious depths — from ‘zombie worms’ to mega-waves

They may look like chubby microscopic caterpillars, but water bears are no joke. These creatures will probably live long after humans are gone.

Eraxion/istockphoto

This tiny animal is apocalypse-proof

Asteroids or exploding stars won’t wipe out microscopic critters called tardigrades

The galaxies M81 (left) and M82 (right) may be exchanging gas. Supernova explosions in M82 would toss out gas that could be pulled toward M81. That could help M81 bulk up.

Markus Schopfer/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Half the Milky Way may be stolen material

Galactic winds may have delivered half of the material that makes up our galaxy

Scientists filmed this humpback whale swimming with a large group of others as it fed off the coast of South Africa. The video shows the whale using its front flippers to move toward its prey.

Charles Littnan and Ari Friedlaender

Humpbacks flap their flippers like underwater birds

Researchers spotted whales making moves once thought impossible

Latest Headlines

Emily Koehne (right) interviewed Sylvia Acevedo (left), leader of the Girl Scouts of the United States, for her YouTube video series about women in STEM.

E. Koehne

Eureka! Lab

Young Scientists

Teen interviews science role models to inspire others

When mice eat high-fat diets, they can become obese. That might be partly due to immune cells in their brains, a new study shows.

Georgejason/istockphoto

Brain’s immune system can play role in weight gain

IPGGutenbergUKLtd/iStockphoto

Racial discrimination may aggravate asthma, study finds

The white-spotted bamboo shark uses its shoulders to help slurp up unsuspecting prey.

yvonne n/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)