Science News for Students | News and feature articles from all fields of science
Big city lights
Top Story
Night lights have a dark side
Artificial light at night impairs stargazing, animal behaviors — and maybe even human health
gecko gripper

Caption: 

Aaron Parness of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory poses like Superman to grab a floating cube with a gecko-inspired gripper. He’s on an airplane that can temporarily make passengers weightless.

Credit: 

H. Jiang et al/Science Robotics 2017
Space
 
Robot grippers imitate gecko feet to help nab space junk
Engineers tested the sticky technology on a giant air hockey table and in low gravity
airplane takeoff

Caption: 

Global warming could force airplanes to carry a lighter load — such as fewer passengers — on each flight.

Credit: 

Chalabala/iStockphoto
Weather & Climate
 
Hotter air may lead planes to carry fewer passengers
Feverish temps could make it more difficult for planes to lift off
mosquito repellent

Caption: 

Does the best mosquito repellent come in a spray can? To find out, scientists put common products to the test.

Credit: 

redstallion/iStockphoto
Health
 
Analyze This!
Analyze This! Mosquito repellents that work
Spray-on repellents are usually the best at keeping those blood suckers from making you their next meal
microneedle patch

Caption: 

In healthy adults, a flu-vaccine patch (seen here) packed with “microneedles” painlessly delivers a dose of flu vaccine and causes only mild side effects — ones similar to what a traditional flu shot causes.

Credit: 

Christopher Moore, Georgia Tech
Health
 
Getting a flu ‘shot’ could become as easy as sticking on a bandage
Applying a flu-vaccine patch studded with 100 microneedles feels like pressing Velcro on the skin

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Trending
exploding atomizer
Toxicology
Concerns explode over new health risks of vaping
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
dinosaur extinction
Fossils
What killed the dinosaurs?
Blogs
mosquito repellent

Caption: 

Does the best mosquito repellent come in a spray can? To find out, scientists put common products to the test.

Credit: 

redstallion/iStockphoto
Analyze This!
Analyze This! Mosquito repellents that work
big and little dog

Caption: 

It may not look like this Czechoslovakian wolfdog and the smaller Chihuahua have much in common, but they were both domesticated from wolves.

Credit: 

cynoclub/istockphoto
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Domestication
TEETH

Caption: 

Ewww. Dental plaque is actually a biofilm — a big conglomeration of microbes.

Credit: 

watanyou/istockphoto
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Biofilm
lunar surface

Caption: 

Details about the moon’s early atmosphere may be stored in its surface. This false-color image shows the lunar surface. Craters and other low-lying areas are blue. Higher regions are red. The near side of the moon appears at left; the far side at right.

Credit: 

NASA, GSFC, MIT, LOLA
Space
 
Early moon may have had metallic skies and gale-force winds
Early Earth’s glow helped vaporize metals to form a lunar atmosphere with stiff gusts and metallic snow
big and little dog

Caption: 

It may not look like this Czechoslovakian wolfdog and the smaller Chihuahua have much in common, but they were both domesticated from wolves.

Credit: 

cynoclub/istockphoto
Agriculture
 
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Domestication
This is the process that brings organisms out of the wild and into our lives
storks scavengers

Caption: 

A small percentage of wildebeests drown as they try to cross a river in East Africa. But their carcasses can provide resources to the river ecosystem for many years, a new study finds.

Credit: 

CHRISTOPH STRÄSSLER/FLICKR (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Animals
 
Wildebeest drownings feed a river ecosystem for years
Thousands of carcasses provide nutrients for a succession of other creatures
zip liners

Caption: 

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

Credit: 

JHVEPhoto/iStockphoto
STEM Careers
 
Cool Jobs: Bringing you summer thrills
The designers behind fun rides and fireworks reveal some of their secrets
Arctic water

Caption: 

The Arctic Ocean didn’t become salty until a stretch of land that ran from Greenland (pictured here) to Scotland sank far enough beneath the sea, a new study finds.

Credit: 

SteveAllenPhoto/iStockphoto
Oceans
 
How the Arctic Ocean became salty
A land bridge had to sink far enough below a top-of-the-world lake to let Atlantic saltwater overwhelm it
Body & Brain
Big city lights

Caption: 

Major cities can easily be seen from space at night owing to the huge outpouring of light they emit. They also can be seen from a great distance, on the ground, due to the way they produce a dome of overhead light known as sky glow.

Credit: 

Britus/iStockphoto
Environment
Night lights have a dark side
microneedle patch

Caption: 

In healthy adults, a flu-vaccine patch (seen here) packed with “microneedles” painlessly delivers a dose of flu vaccine and causes only mild side effects — ones similar to what a traditional flu shot causes.

Credit: 

Christopher Moore, Georgia Tech
Health
Getting a flu ‘shot’ could become as easy as sticking on a bandage
vaccine shot

Caption: 

Most vaccines are given through injections, but some can be given by nose or mouth.

Credit: 

Remains/iStockphoto
Health
Explainer: What is a vaccine?
Japan atmosphere

Caption: 

The view from a plane in which atmospheric scientists are taking air measurements over Japan. They’re looking for airborne particles that might prove a trigger for Kawasaki disease.

Credit: 

Roger Curcoll, IC3
Health
Hunting the mysterious source of a global illness
Invention & Innovation
underwater robot
Robotics
Underwater robot vacuums up lionfish
native silver
Materials Science
Nanowires made from silver are super stretchy
Smart poster
Technology
These antennas turn anything into a radio station
Skin cell
Technology
‘Nanostraws’ safely sneak a peek inside cells
frying egg

Caption: 

Many old-style nonstick frying pans relied on coatings containing PFOA or related perfluorinated compounds. Although there has been a move to alternative coatings, these perfluorinated pollutants live on in the environment. And that is driving new research aimed at removing them.

Credit: 

loongar/iStockphoto
Chemistry
 
New ‘magnet’ pulls pesky nonstick pollutants from drinking water
It targets toxic chemicals, which can themselves stick around in the environment — potentially forever
vaccine shot

Caption: 

Most vaccines are given through injections, but some can be given by nose or mouth.

Credit: 

Remains/iStockphoto
Health
 
Explainer: What is a vaccine?
Vaccines imitate infections to prevent illness
bird eggs

Caption: 

Bird eggs come in many different shapes, sizes and colors. A new study shows a link between how birds fly and the shape of the eggs they lay.

Credit: 

HARVARD MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY
Animals
 
Evolving for flight may have changed the shapes of bird eggs
Scientists might have cracked the mystery of why eggs look so different
TEETH

Caption: 

Ewww. Dental plaque is actually a biofilm — a big conglomeration of microbes.

Credit: 

watanyou/istockphoto
Microbes
 
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Biofilm
These are slimy clumps of microbes that cling anywhere they can
corvina fish

Caption: 

This is a fresh-caught Gulf corvina. Scientists have listened in on its mating sounds to determine how many of these fish are around — and if they need protecting.

Credit: 

Gulf of California Marine Program
Animals
 
Listening to fish love songs can predict their numbers
Scientists use sound to count some of the fish in the sea
Cool Jobs
zip liners

Caption: 

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

Credit: 

JHVEPhoto/iStockphoto
STEM Careers
Cool Jobs: Bringing you summer thrills
cave light
Ecosystems
Cool Jobs: Bringing caves' dark secrets to light
crime scene sample
Science & Society
Cool Jobs: New tools to solve crimes
food pile
Chemistry
Cool Jobs: Counting calories
Space
gecko gripper

Caption: 

Aaron Parness of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory poses like Superman to grab a floating cube with a gecko-inspired gripper. He’s on an airplane that can temporarily make passengers weightless.

Credit: 

H. Jiang et al/Science Robotics 2017
Space
Robot grippers imitate gecko feet to help nab space junk
lunar surface

Caption: 

Details about the moon’s early atmosphere may be stored in its surface. This false-color image shows the lunar surface. Craters and other low-lying areas are blue. Higher regions are red. The near side of the moon appears at left; the far side at right.

Credit: 

NASA, GSFC, MIT, LOLA
Space
Early moon may have had metallic skies and gale-force winds
Kepler planets

Caption: 

The Kepler space telescope detected a lot of alien worlds that are rocky like Earth or gassy like Neptune. But few exist between those two types.

Credit: 

B.J. Fulton/Univ. of Hawaii, Caltech, Ames/NASA
Planets
Small, distant worlds are either big Earths or little Neptunes
Jupiter spot

Caption: 

Jupiter was probably the first planet in the solar system to form, new research suggests. Its existence may have influenced how the planets evolved into the order we see today.

Credit: 

AMY A. SIMON, NASA, EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY
Planets
Jupiter may be the solar system’s oldest planet
bee hotel

Caption: 

The Edmonton & Area Land Trust’s staff placed this bee hotel in a park in Alberta, Canada.

Credit: 

Edmonton & Area Land Trust
Animals
 
Bee hotels are open for business
These structures give wild bees a place to nest — but may bring uninvited guests
Larsen C

Caption: 

Images from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellites confirm the crack of Larsen C has reached the Weddell Sea, allowing an iceberg weighing 1 trillion metric tons to calve.

Credit: 

ESA (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)
Earth
 
Antarctic ice shelf sheds Delaware-sized iceberg
The ice chunk’s release raises questions about how stable its parent ice shelf is
Kepler planets

Caption: 

The Kepler space telescope detected a lot of alien worlds that are rocky like Earth or gassy like Neptune. But few exist between those two types.

Credit: 

B.J. Fulton/Univ. of Hawaii, Caltech, Ames/NASA
Planets
 
Small, distant worlds are either big Earths or little Neptunes
Kepler telescope adds 10 potentially habitable rocky planets to exoplanets tally
Japan atmosphere

Caption: 

The view from a plane in which atmospheric scientists are taking air measurements over Japan. They’re looking for airborne particles that might prove a trigger for Kawasaki disease.

Credit: 

Roger Curcoll, IC3
Health
 
Hunting the mysterious source of a global illness
As Kawasaki disease is on the move, hitting kids across the planet, researchers team up to identify its cause
cat grass

Caption: 

Before cats achieved world dominion, they spread in two waves, a DNA study suggests. Early Middle Eastern farmers probably brought kitties and agriculture to Europe over land. Egyptian cats may have been transported by boat to far-reaching parts of Europe, Africa and Asia.

Credit: 

Astrid860/iStockphoto
Genetics
 
DNA tells tale of how cats conquered the world
Analyzing 9,000 years of cat remains points to two waves of feline migration
Latest Headlines
gecko gripper

Caption: 

Aaron Parness of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory poses like Superman to grab a floating cube with a gecko-inspired gripper. He’s on an airplane that can temporarily make passengers weightless.

Credit: 

H. Jiang et al/Science Robotics 2017
Space
Robot grippers imitate gecko feet to help nab space junk
Big city lights

Caption: 

Major cities can easily be seen from space at night owing to the huge outpouring of light they emit. They also can be seen from a great distance, on the ground, due to the way they produce a dome of overhead light known as sky glow.

Credit: 

Britus/iStockphoto
Environment
Night lights have a dark side
airplane takeoff

Caption: 

Global warming could force airplanes to carry a lighter load — such as fewer passengers — on each flight.

Credit: 

Chalabala/iStockphoto
Weather & Climate
Hotter air may lead planes to carry fewer passengers
mosquito repellent

Caption: 

Does the best mosquito repellent come in a spray can? To find out, scientists put common products to the test.

Credit: 

redstallion/iStockphoto
Analyze This!
Health
Analyze This! Mosquito repellents that work
Math & Technology
gecko gripper

Caption: 

Aaron Parness of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory poses like Superman to grab a floating cube with a gecko-inspired gripper. He’s on an airplane that can temporarily make passengers weightless.

Credit: 

H. Jiang et al/Science Robotics 2017
Space
Robot grippers imitate gecko feet to help nab space junk
microneedle patch

Caption: 

In healthy adults, a flu-vaccine patch (seen here) packed with “microneedles” painlessly delivers a dose of flu vaccine and causes only mild side effects — ones similar to what a traditional flu shot causes.

Credit: 

Christopher Moore, Georgia Tech
Health
Getting a flu ‘shot’ could become as easy as sticking on a bandage
zip liners

Caption: 

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

Credit: 

JHVEPhoto/iStockphoto
STEM Careers
Cool Jobs: Bringing you summer thrills
Microrobot artery
Robotics
Therapeutic robots may soon swim within the body