Science News for Students | News and feature articles from all fields of science

Climate Change Chronicles

a girl and her mother sitting and talking in scenic mountain lake setting

Middle school students can sway their parents’ views about climate change if they talk about the topic and share what they’ve been learning in school.

Laikwunfai/E+/Getty Images

Psychology
Students can sway how their parents view climate change
a sack full of sorghum grain

With climate change, people may have to depend on grains such as the sorghum (shown here) that are not now commonly found on our plates.

Leonid Eremeychuk/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Agriculture
Get ready to eat differently in a warmer world
a Syrian boy sitting in a refugee camp with his head on his hand

A Syrian boy sits in a refugee camp after civil war destroyed towns and rural areas throughout his country. Some scientists believe climate stresses could have played a role in triggering or worsening the Syrian conflict.

cloverphoto/iStock/Getty Images plus

Science & Society
Could climate change worsen global conflict?
a photo of refugees being assisted by the Red Cross after flooding in Mozambique

In March, Cyclone Idai struck Mozambique, causing widespread flooding. It also sparked an outbreak of cholera.

Climate Centre/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Health
Warning: Climate change can harm your health
a photo of two girls hugging

The impacts of climate change can hurt kids’ mental health in a wide range of ways.

AntonioGuillem/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Health
Climate change poses mental health risks to children and teens
an illustration of an asteroid impacting the Earth
Top Story
Reliving the last day of the dinosaurs
Geologic sites are telling the story of the asteroid impact that abruptly changed life on Earth
a photo of a suburban road lined with trashcans and trees
Environment
 
City living makes trees grow fast but die young
Urban trees may not remove as much carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, as rural trees
a photo of a young woman (head cropped out) pushing away a plate of donuts, holding a fruit smoothie and with a salad in front of her
Nutrition
 
Youthful rebellion leads some teens to eat better
Food choices can improve after students learn how ads have been created to ‘control’ their behaviors
a sign that reads no narcotic overdose, naloxone dispensing pharmacy in front of blurry pharmacy shelves
Science Education
 
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Naloxone
This live-saving drug reverses the effects of morphine, heroin and other opioids
a high-speed animation showing how aphids repair a hole in their home
Animals
 
Young aphids sacrifice themselves to make home repairs
Soldiers exude a white goo to patch holes in their colony’s tree-house

Sponsor

Editor's Picks
Beach/umbrellas
Body functions
Umbrella’s shade doesn’t prevent sunburn
pool urine
Chemistry
Scientists know that you pee in the pool
girl on beach
Oceans
Beaches can be a germy playground
Trending
5 pretty faces
Psychology
What makes a pretty face?
an illustration of an asteroid impacting the Earth

A massive asteroid hit the Earth 66 million years ago. The explosive collision rattled the planet and changed its climate. The devastating changes it triggered abruptly wiped out the dinosaurs — and most other living species.

solarseven/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Earth
Reliving the last day of the dinosaurs
three zombies
Behavior
Zombies are real!
an illustration of Suskityrannus hazelae

At about 1 meter (39 inches) tall at the hip, the newly identified Suskityrannus hazelae (illustrated) suggests tyrannosaurs gained fearsome traits before they got really big.

Andrey Atuchin

Fossils
This tiny dinosaur is officially T. rex’s cousin
a photo of red strata in Romania
Earth
 
Explainer: Understanding geologic time
Here’s how scientists have organized time throughout Earth’s 4.6-billion-year history
a photo of two scientists on a boat holding a tiger shark
Ecology
 
Tiger sharks feast when migratory birds fall out of the sky
Other marine animals don’t appear to target these land birds
an illustration of Suskityrannus hazelae
Fossils
 
This tiny dinosaur is officially T. rex’s cousin
Decades after it was discovered, this 92-million-year-old tyrannosaur finally has a family
a photo of the earth at night from orbit showing how bright populated areas are
Light & Radiation
 
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Light pollution
This is when artificial light leaks into places that are normally dark
an animated image showing a bubble traveling from the bottom of a lava lamp to the top
Physics
 
Dry sand can bubble like the blobs in a lava lamp
All it takes is a jiggle and some gas to get the grains flowing
Blogs
a sign that reads no narcotic overdose, naloxone dispensing pharmacy in front of blurry pharmacy shelves

With a prescription, people can get naloxone from a pharmacy to have in case they, or someone they know, overdoses on opioids. 

Sign: Pureradiancephoto/iStock/Getty Images Plus; Background: Kwangmoozaa/iStock/Getty Images Plus; adapted by L. Steenblik Hwang

Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Naloxone
a photo of the earth at night from orbit showing how bright populated areas are

People produce so much extra light that our light pollution can be seen from space.

Craig Mayhew and Robert Simmon/NASA GSFC

Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Light pollution
a smiling kid wearing glasses standing outside in front of a lake

People sometimes have to wear glasses because they have myopia — a condition where distant objects appear fuzzy.

PeopleImages/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Myopia
an endangered mossy red-eyed frog (Duellmanohyla soralia) sitting on a green leaf

This is an endangered mossy red-eyed frog (Duellmanohyla soralia) from Honduras. Its species is among at least 500 whose numbers have declined due to chytrid fungal infections, a new tally shows. 

Jonathan E. Kolby/Honduras Amphibian Rescue & Conservation Center

Analyze This!
Analyze This: Amphibian populations are on the decline
Body & Brain
a photo of a young woman (head cropped out) pushing away a plate of donuts, holding a fruit smoothie and with a salad in front of her

Kids and teens were more likely to choose healthy foods once they understood how food companies have designed ads to manipulate them.

Kiwis/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Nutrition
Youthful rebellion leads some teens to eat better
a bored teen with an afro watching tv while sitting on a sofa

A national survey shows Americans spend a lot of time sitting in front of screens.  

g-stockstudio/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Health
New risk from too much screentime
a domestic pig on a farm

In a feat that has shaken up neuroscience, scientists used an artificial fluid to keep cells alive in the brains of pigs that had been slaughtered for pork.

ChristiLaLiberte/ E+/Getty Images

Cells
In a first, scientists keep cells alive in the brains of dead pigs
a macro photo of an Aedes aegypti mosquito

Geneticists have figured out one protein that an Aedes aegypti mosquito (shown) needs to sniff out the lactic acid in human sweat.

Alex Wild

Health
Geneticists get closer to knowing how mosquitoes sniff out our sweat
an illustration of a spinning star, called a collapsar, releasing a long gamma-ray burst from either pole
Astronomy
 
Dying stars can make gold as they collapse into black holes
The spinning orbs may help to explain the origin of such heavy elements in space
Culture
 
For these artists, math is their muse
A growing number of artists are creating works based on mathematical ideas
a bored teen with an afro watching tv while sitting on a sofa
Health
 
New risk from too much screentime
Teens — and everyone else, it seems — spend an unhealthy amount of time sitting, a new survey finds
a photo of InSight lander’s seismometer on Mars
Planets
 
Was that a Marsquake?
Here’s what the grumbling Red Planet sounds like
a photo of a group of green disk robots
Robotics
 
This robot’s parts are helpless alone, but turn smart as they team up
A new system called particle robotics is expanding what it means to be a robot
Space
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
a photo of InSight lander’s seismometer on Mars

The InSight lander’s seismometer, shown here on Mars (protected by a dome), appears to have detected its first quake.

JPL-Caltech/NASA

Planets
Was that a Marsquake?
a photo of STEVE's ourple and green streaks across the night sky

Satellite data are helping scientists figure out what’s going on with STEVE, a weird purple streak with green stripes that can glow in the night sky.

Lauri Kangas

Astronomy
New insights on how STEVE lights up the night sky
a telescopic image of the moon

Water molecules near the moon hint that our natural satellite has water under its soil.

NASA

Astronomy
Meteorites may be excavating lunar water
Invention & Innovation
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
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

Chemistry
Shape-shifting chemical is key to new solar battery
a smiling kid wearing glasses standing outside in front of a lake
Science Education
 
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Myopia
This is the scientific term for nearsightedness, in which people have trouble seeing distant objects
a photo of a hillside cracked in a 2010 earthquake
Earth
 
A million tiny quakes shook Southern California — and no one knew
Data on lots of little quakes can help scientists learn about what triggers the big ones
a surfer surving on a blue wave
Sustainability
 
Ocean energy could be the wave of the future
Wave-power systems are the latest in clean, renewable energy
a girl and her mother sitting and talking in scenic mountain lake setting
Psychology
 
Students can sway how their parents view climate change
Parental concern for the climate grew more after children shared what they had been learning
An underwater photo of a school of fish swimming past a reef. 
Microbes
 
Slimy fish could aid the search for new drugs
Their protective coating is chock-full of bacteria — and maybe antibiotics
Latest Headlines
a photo of a suburban road lined with trashcans and trees

Many cities plant trees to absorb CO2 and stop temperatures from rising to dangerous levels. But a new study shows city trees grow faster and die younger than forest trees. That means city trees will absorb less CO2.

mastersky/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Environment
City living makes trees grow fast but die young
a photo of a young woman (head cropped out) pushing away a plate of donuts, holding a fruit smoothie and with a salad in front of her

Kids and teens were more likely to choose healthy foods once they understood how food companies have designed ads to manipulate them.

Kiwis/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Nutrition
Youthful rebellion leads some teens to eat better
a sign that reads no narcotic overdose, naloxone dispensing pharmacy in front of blurry pharmacy shelves

With a prescription, people can get naloxone from a pharmacy to have in case they, or someone they know, overdoses on opioids. 

Sign: Pureradiancephoto/iStock/Getty Images Plus; Background: Kwangmoozaa/iStock/Getty Images Plus; adapted by L. Steenblik Hwang

Scientists Say
Science Education
Scientists Say: Naloxone
a high-speed animation showing how aphids repair a hole in their home

If a predator breaks through the wall of the gall housing these aphids, some of the tiny insects will exude a goo that will harden and plaster shut the opening. Unfortunately, the home-repair crews will likely lose their life in the process.

M. Kutsukake et al/PNAS 2019

Animals
Young aphids sacrifice themselves to make home repairs
Math & Technology
860_math_muse_math_art.png

"Grid," by math artist Henry Segerman, explores mathematical concepts using projections. This 3-D printed sculpture is a patterned sphere. When light shines through the openings from above, the shadows form a square grid.

H. Segerman

Culture
For these artists, math is their muse
a photo of InSight lander’s seismometer on Mars

The InSight lander’s seismometer, shown here on Mars (protected by a dome), appears to have detected its first quake.

JPL-Caltech/NASA

Planets
Was that a Marsquake?
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 surfer surving on a blue wave

Not just great for surfing, waves may be the next big thing in renewable energy.

EpicStockMedia/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Sustainability
Ocean energy could be the wave of the future