Science News for Students

Warning: Climate change can harm your health

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

AntonioGuillem/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Climate change poses mental health risks to children and teens

a photo of a Myanmar farmer woman carrying two baskets from a shoulder pole

One feature of Earth’s changing climate is warmer temperatures. This extra heat will hurt outdoor workers by reducing how much work they can get done.

Nikada/E+/Getty Images

Workers won’t work as well in a very warm world

an animated image showing a researcher igniting methane escaping from a frozen lake

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

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

Top Story

Proud to be different in STEM

LGBTQ+ scientists and engineers are coming out and becoming visible to support the next generation

the top three award winners for 2019 Intel ISEF

Young researchers take home almost $5 million at 2019 Intel ISEF competition

Three top winners created medical advances; fourth developed jellyfish-inspired system for aquatic propulsion

a photo of Natalie Yam holding a small-scale model of her rectangular origami paper parachuet

How to develop more ecofriendly parachutes for disaster relief

Make them out of paper, and give them origami folds

a photo of Supraja Sayee Srinivasan and Kunjal Bharatkumar in front of their poster at Intel ISEF 2019

GPS jewelry helps refugee moms and kids stay healthy

New system helps mothers track when kids need vaccinations and lets health workers locate people in need

Huai-pu Chen holding his new fish tag in front of his poster at ISEF 2019

This fish ‘tag’ runs on fish power

A teen developed an electrically powered tag that runs on the power provided by a fish’s swimming

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Editor's Picks

Windshield wipers often can’t keep up with the rain. High-intensity air sprays might one day take their place, according to research by two teens.

Technology

Teens want to make windshield wipers obsolete

Weather & Climate

This umbrella ‘listens’ to rain — for science

Physics

Raindrops break the speed limit

Trending

an illustration of a planet with two stars

A teen scientist from New York has discovered several distant exoplanets, including a world that orbits two suns (artist’s concept shown).

T. Pyle/NASA/JPL-Caltech

Teen astronomer finds a planet with two suns

A photo of astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly

Astronaut Scott Kelly (left) spent a year in space on the International Space Station while his identical twin brother, astronaut Mark Kelly (right), remained on Earth. They were part of a landmark study to help researchers understand how space flight affects the human body.

NASA

Fossils from a Philippine cave may come from a new human-like species

a photo of the inside of a Phillipine cave

Scientists think fossils from this Philippine cave were left by a previously unknown Homo species that lived at least 50,000 years ago.

Callao Cave Archaeology Project

Human evolution

a photo of a sea turtle named Kent who was injured in a boat accident

Sea turtles like this one can't survive in the wild after they've been injured by boats. A teen has developed a new vest that she hopes will set them free.

The Turtle Hospital

Teen designs belt to hold down a sea turtle’s bubble butt

A comparison to his twin looks at how long-term spaceflight changes the human body

Teen astronomer finds a planet with two suns

The distant world might seem familiar to Luke Skywalker

a photo of a white and brown owl sitting in a tree

Two teens pull DNA from birds out of the air

Their new technique could help scientists track birds, using the DNA they leave behind

Teen designs belt to hold down a sea turtle’s bubble butt

Affected turtles can end up permanently afloat after a boat strike; this teen wants to right them again

a chalkboard with the symbol for female, transgender, and male individuals drawn on it in chalk

STEM Careers

Transgender researchers want to make an impact

Trans and non-binary people are becoming more visible in science and engineering

Blogs

The top three award winners rejoice in their triumph at the 2019 Intel ISEF competition in Phoenix, Ariz. From left: Allison Jia, 17; Krithik Ramesh, 16; and Rachel Seevers, 17.

C. Ayers Photography/SSP

Young researchers take home almost $5 million at 2019 Intel ISEF competition

Natalie Yam displays a small-scale model of her new parachute model made from folded paper.

A.S. Perkins

How to develop more ecofriendly parachutes for disaster relief

Supraja Sayee Srinivasan (left) holds a necklace and Kunjal Bharatkumar (right) holds a bracelet. Both pieces of jewelry contain location trackers to help health workers find mothers and babies who need vaccines.

C. Ayers Photography/SSP

GPS jewelry helps refugee moms and kids stay healthy

Huai-pu Chen shows off his new fish tag (left). The tail of the tag bends in the water as a fish swims, which powers the electronics in the arrow-shaped head of that tag.

B. Brookshire/SSP

This fish ‘tag’ runs on fish power

Body & Brain

NASA

a mosquito drinking blood from a human and peeing

A peeing mosquito (seen here) could now reveal what viruses have been in the blood it has drunk. A new trap that collects the pee could lead to easier, cheaper and safer ways to check for lurking human diseases.

James Gathany/CDC

Testing mosquito pee could help track disease spread

an image from the Netflix show "13 Reasons Why" showing the character Hannah Baker talking to someone at her locker

13 Reasons Why is a show about the suicide of Hannah Baker (left). Scientists and medical professionals worried that people who watched the show might be at higher risk for suicide themselves.

Beth Dubber/Netflix

Psychology

Is the Netflix show 13 Reasons Why linked to suicide?

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

Need a little luck? Here’s how to grow your own

Teen researcher from Japan uses plant hormone to boost leaf counts in clover

a photo of Prerna Magon, 18, at ISEF 2019 showing some of the cards for his game

Game may help rid people of biases they didn’t know they had

A teen designed the game to help people see different points of view

Testing mosquito pee could help track disease spread

West Nile and other diseases were detected in urine from wild insects caught in traps

a photo of food cooking on a stovetop with a turkey in the background

Environment

Studies show how homes can pollute indoor air

Teams examined emissions from cooking, cleaning, furniture and more

Science Education

Scientists Say

Scientists Say: Space weather

This phrase refers to the conditions on the sun and in space that can affect life on Earth

Space

NASA

Some interplanetary dust grains that end up in Earth’s atmosphere may have traveled long distances. They may hail from the Kuiper Belt (illustrated). It is a region of icy objects out beyond Neptune that orbit the sun.

ESA

Some dust in Earth’s atmosphere may hail from beyond Neptune

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

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

Invention & Innovation

Steve Debenport/E+/Getty Images

Chemistry

Remote-controlled nanoparticles could fight cancer — gently

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 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 two chess players shaking hands

Genetics

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

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

Genetics

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

Ecosystems

Scientists Say

Scientists Say: Wetland

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

a computer illustration of in vitro fertilization

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

Latest Headlines

The top three award winners rejoice in their triumph at the 2019 Intel ISEF competition in Phoenix, Ariz. From left: Allison Jia, 17; Krithik Ramesh, 16; and Rachel Seevers, 17.

C. Ayers Photography/SSP

Young researchers take home almost $5 million at 2019 Intel ISEF competition

Natalie Yam displays a small-scale model of her new parachute model made from folded paper.

A.S. Perkins

How to develop more ecofriendly parachutes for disaster relief

C. Ayers Photography/SSP

GPS jewelry helps refugee moms and kids stay healthy

Huai-pu Chen shows off his new fish tag (left). The tail of the tag bends in the water as a fish swims, which powers the electronics in the arrow-shaped head of that tag.

B. Brookshire/SSP

This fish ‘tag’ runs on fish power

Math & Technology

an photo of hnds using a smarphone with an illustration of data floating above the screen

“There is no 100-percent-secure software,” says Craig Williams. “It does not exist.” He is one of many cybersecurity experts working to protect people’s data and devices. But everyone should take steps to protect themselves.

PeopleImages/E+/Getty Images

Computers & Electronics

You can fight back against cyberattacks

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

“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

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