Science News for Students | News and feature articles from all fields of science
a young man leaning on a red car while on his phone, the bumper of his car is crumpled because he has been in a car accident
Top Story
Here’s what puts teen drivers at greatest risk of a crash
Just-licensed teens are roughly four times as likely as adults are to crash their cars
A young woman is smiling and talking on her cell-phone
Health
 
Teens’ cell phone use linked to memory problems
Exposure to radiation from phones might affect a certain type of memory in teens
A photo of a loggerhead shrike, a small gray bird with a black mask and a white stomach, perched on a branch against a blue sky. It is holding a dead lizard with its foot.
Animals
 
These songbirds can fling and shake mice to death
This meat-hunting bird’s shake might be worse than its bite
data computer
Science Education
 
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Data
These are facts that are collected together so that they can be analyzed
a radar map showing hurricane Harvey's eyewall
Weather & Climate
 
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

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Editor's Picks
Starcraft II
Computers & Electronics
Cool Jobs: Video game creators
space walk
Astronauts don bulky suits to protect themselves as they “walk” outside the International Space Station. A new material might one day make those suits even more protective.
NASA
Technology
Want a tougher space suit? Just add liquid
Dickinsonia

Dickinsonia was one of the first animals on Earth. It lived on the ocean floor 550 million to 560 million years ago. It looked like a giant version of the modern-day Trichoplax, the simplest animal now alive.

John Sibbick

Animals
Living Mysteries: Meet Earth’s simplest animal
Trending
a computer generated image of what the Ocean Cleanup system will look like floating in the North Pacific

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

Pollution
Enormous floating barrier will corral ocean trash
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

Pollution
Don’t flush your contact lenses
a young man leaning on a red car while on his phone, the bumper of his car is crumpled because he has been in a car accident

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
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 satellite image of Hurricane Michael on October 9, 2018
Weather & Climate
 
Hurricane Michael slams into Florida, then speeds north
The worst damage occurred in the path of its eyewall
a photo of Paula Jofré
Astronomy
 
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
a photo of a young woman putting in a contact lens, reflected in a mirror
Pollution
 
Don’t flush your contact lenses
The plastics in them can pollute water and be mistaken for food by aquatic animals
Blogs
data computer

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

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

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

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
Scientists Say: Yellow dwarf
tardis

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
A young woman is smiling and talking on her cell-phone

A new study finds that teens who get more exposure to cell-phone radiation — and hold their phones on the right — do worse on one type of memory test.

DMEPhotography/iStockphoto

Health
Teens’ cell phone use linked to memory problems
a young man leaning on a red car while on his phone, the bumper of his car is crumpled because he has been in a car accident

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
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
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 computer generated image of what the Ocean Cleanup system will look like floating in the North Pacific
Pollution
 
Enormous floating barrier will corral ocean trash
Critics question whether it will do much good
sun
Astronomy
 
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Yellow dwarf
This is a medium-sized star — like our sun
tardis
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
a lit cigarette resting on an ashtray, smoke is rising from the cigarette
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
a blue gloved hand holding a plate with bacteria on it
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
Space
a photo of Paula Jofré

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

MARÍA CECILIA ABARCA/UNIVERSIDAD DIEGO PORTALES

Astronomy
Cool Job: Making stellar connections
Atacama telescope array

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

Astronomy
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
860_Lem_tree_tape.png

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
curling chrysanthemum

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
chemistry nobel
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
A photo of an array of protein rich foods including red meat, fish, nuts, beans, eggs, chickpeas, avacado, spinach and broccoli
Body functions
 
Explainer: What are proteins?
These tiny machines perform tasks for cells throughout the body
a backpack with school supplies and a cell phone
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
Latest Headlines
A young woman is smiling and talking on her cell-phone

A new study finds that teens who get more exposure to cell-phone radiation — and hold their phones on the right — do worse on one type of memory test.

DMEPhotography/iStockphoto

Health
Teens’ cell phone use linked to memory problems
A photo of a loggerhead shrike, a small gray bird with a black mask and a white stomach, perched on a branch against a blue sky. It is holding a dead lizard with its foot.

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
data computer

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

Scientists Say
Science Education
Scientists Say: Data
a radar map showing hurricane Harvey's eyewall

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

Weather & Climate
Explainer: The furious eye(wall) of a hurricane or typhoon
Math & Technology
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

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
860_main_SN_wildfires_Carr.png

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

Weather & Climate
Wilder wildfires? Computing helps predict their path and fury
spaghetti machine

Researchers used a custom spaghetti-snapping machine (above) to discover the best way to break dry spaghetti in half.

RONALD HEISSER AND VISHAL PATIL

Physics
The perfect spaghetti snap starts with a twist
fake news

Researchers are building computer algorithms that can check the veracity of online news.

juststock/iStockphoto

Technology
Scientists enlist computers to hunt down fake news