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
A photo of astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly
Top Story
How a year in space affected Scott Kelly's health
A comparison to his twin looks at how long-term spaceflight changes the human body
Brain
 
High fat diet removes brain’s natural brake on overeating
The finding, from a study in mice, may point to a similar risk for people
an illustration of a ploonet
Planets
 
What do you call a moon that escapes its planet? A ‘ploonet’
Giant planets in other star systems might lose their moons, creating new planets
an illustration of the galaxy Antila 2
Astronomy
 
Caught: A ghost galaxy that may have hit ours long ago
The star system Antlia 2 turned up not far from where astronomers predicted the culprit should be
an illustration of a chemical compound that binds to the pit of a virus
Microbes
 
A surface crater in viruses may be key to keeping colds from spreading
Compounds that stick in the pit can stop the virus from reproducing

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Editor's Picks
Space
The first moon walker
a screen capture from the film "First Man" showing Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong before boarding the Apollo 11 spacecraft

In this image from First Man, Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong walks to the Apollo 11 spacecraft before taking off for his historic moon landing.

Universal Pictures

Space
The movie ‘First Man’ captures early spaceflight's terror
Neil Armstrong (right) seen wearing his pressure suit on the lunar surface July 20, 1969. That suit, now a prized artifact in the Smithsonian Institution’s collection of space wear, is deteriorating. Museum scientists are working hard to limit further damage.
Chemistry
Cool Jobs: Saving precious objects
Trending
5 pretty faces
Psychology
What makes a pretty face?
three zombies
Behavior
Zombies are real!
Brain
Explainer: What is dopamine?
a close up photo of a mosquito with a red no symbol covering the mosquito

A new tactic swats at malaria by infecting the disease-carrying mosquitoes with a toxic fungus.

noipornpan/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Health
A fungus plus a spider toxin equals a weapon to kill mosquitoes
a photo of the hand of a 17-year old boy showing six fingers
Body functions
 
A sixth finger can prove extra handy
For one mother and son, it aided the ability to text, type and more
a bucket of hagfish in water
Animals
 
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Hagfish
This fish is famous for its slime-making skills
a close up photo of a mosquito with a red no symbol covering the mosquito
Health
 
A fungus plus a spider toxin equals a weapon to kill mosquitoes
In almost-outdoor experiments, an engineered fungus killed malaria-spreading insects
a sign warning of pesticide useage in English and Spanish in a crop field
Agriculture
 
U.S. farmers still use many pesticides that are banned elsewhere
American companies, not the government, drive most decisions on whether to phase out chemicals
a photo of a researcher at a Russian excavation site
Genetics
 
DNA reveals clues to the Siberian ancestors of the first Americans
Previously unknown Ice Age travelers crossed a land bridge from Russia into North America
Blogs
a bucket of hagfish in water

This is not a bucket of worms. It’s a bin full of hagfish, fish that can squirt out a liter of slime in self-defense.

Ffennema/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Hagfish
a picture of a rubber duck wearing black glasses

Soft plastic toys, like this ducky, can contain phthalates — chemicals that may contribute to obesity.  

AnthonyRosenberg/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Obesogens
an image of Spiderman flying towards the viewer on against a dark and cloudy sky

A friendly neighborhood Spider-Man might help calm people’s fear of spiders, a new study shows.

Courtesy of Sony Pictures

Technically Fiction
Fighting spider-fear with a little Spider-Man
a photo of Hurricane Isable, showing a strong eyewall, taken from the International Space Station

 This is an image of Hurricane Isabel, which hit the United States in 2003. The eye is in the center, surrounded by a band of clouds called the eyewall.  

 Mike Trenchard/Earth Sciences & Image Analysis Laboratory/NASA Johnson Space Center

Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Eyewall
Body & Brain
062619_ls_obese-mouse_feat.jpg

Even before mice on a high-fat diet gained weight (and they did), certain cells in a part of their brains’ appetite-control center stopped working correctly. This points to how a fatty diet can foster overeating.

Georgejason/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Brain
High fat diet removes brain’s natural brake on overeating
an illustration of a chemical compound that binds to the pit of a virus

A chemical compound (illustrated at center) binds to a never-before-seen pit on the surface (blue, white and magenta) of a type of disease-causing virus. The interaction stops this enterovirus from reproducing.

James Geraets

Microbes
A surface crater in viruses may be key to keeping colds from spreading
a photo of the hand of a 17-year old boy showing six fingers

An extra finger on the right hand of a 17-year-old boy is controlled by its own muscles and tendons.

C. Mehring et al/Nature Communications 2019

Body functions
A sixth finger can prove extra handy
a close up photo of a mosquito with a red no symbol covering the mosquito

A new tactic swats at malaria by infecting the disease-carrying mosquitoes with a toxic fungus.

noipornpan/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Health
A fungus plus a spider toxin equals a weapon to kill mosquitoes
an illustration of microbes in the gut
Microbes
 
Gut bacteria may affect how well your medicines work
New research could help doctors choose drugs for patients based on their microbes
a child with measles scratching their back
Health
 
By the numbers: How infectious measles and other diseases spread
An R0 is one measure of how easily a disease can spread
a picture of a rubber duck wearing black glasses
Health
 
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Obesogens
These are chemicals that can contribute to obesity
a photo of a mini Kibble balance
Physics
 
This device turns the kilogram’s new definition into a real mass
The tabletop system measures 10 grams to an accuracy of a few ten-thousandths of a percent
a bat hanging on a tree
Health
 
Bats are now the primary source of U.S. rabies deaths
Rates of disease are quite low and, unlike elsewhere, seldom due to dog bites
Space
an illustration of a ploonet

There’s a new kind of space object out there. The “ploonet.” This is a moon that escaped the gravity of a gas giant. These ploonets might explain the existence of comets around distant stars, shown here in an artist’s illustration.

Lynnette Cook/Fuse/NASA

Planets
What do you call a moon that escapes its planet? A ‘ploonet’
an illustration of the galaxy Antila 2

Antlia 2, a dim galaxy that orbits the Milky Way, appears at the right in this illustration. It’s a bit bigger but has fewer stars than the Large Magellanic Cloud (left), which also orbits our Milky Way.

V. Belokurov/Univ. of Cambridge/CCA, based on the images by Marcus and Gail Davies and Robert Gendler

Astronomy
Caught: A ghost galaxy that may have hit ours long ago
an image of a plasma eruption from the sun

Blame it on the sun. Extreme space weather events begin when a blob of plasma erupts from the sun and streams toward Earth.

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Astronomy
Space weather forecast: Big storms ahead
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
Invention & Innovation
a photo of a discarded styrofoam cup on the ground surrounded by plants

Unlike this Styrofoam cup, made from plastic, a new kind of foam is biodegradable.

tomschirtz/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Materials Science
Trees may become the key to ‘greener’ foam products
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
a pile of haddock fish
Oceans
 
Oceans’ fever means fewer fish
Since 1930, some regions have seen a 35 percent drop in individuals that can be caught without harming fisheries
a girl and bigfoot take a selfie together in a sunny forest
Animals
 
Technically Fiction
Have we found bigfoot? Not yeti
People want to believe in yetis, but the evidence says they’re just seeing bears
the first ever photo of a black hole, an orange and red aura surrounding a dark round spot
Astronomy
 
Here’s the first picture of a black hole
The supermassive beast lies some 55 million light-years away in a galaxy called M87
a photo of the ALMA array, a group of radio telescopes with large dishes
Astronomy
 
It took a ‘virtual’ telescope to actually picture a black hole
The accomplishment relied on a network of radio telescopes spanning the globe
an illustration of a black hole with stars in the background, a dark black circle with a white ring and aura around the outside of the hole
Astronomy
 
A short history of black holes
Scientists now have the first-ever picture of a black hole. Here’s the historical context
Latest Headlines
062619_ls_obese-mouse_feat.jpg

Even before mice on a high-fat diet gained weight (and they did), certain cells in a part of their brains’ appetite-control center stopped working correctly. This points to how a fatty diet can foster overeating.

Georgejason/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Brain
High fat diet removes brain’s natural brake on overeating
an illustration of a ploonet

There’s a new kind of space object out there. The “ploonet.” This is a moon that escaped the gravity of a gas giant. These ploonets might explain the existence of comets around distant stars, shown here in an artist’s illustration.

Lynnette Cook/Fuse/NASA

Planets
What do you call a moon that escapes its planet? A ‘ploonet’
an illustration of the galaxy Antila 2

Antlia 2, a dim galaxy that orbits the Milky Way, appears at the right in this illustration. It’s a bit bigger but has fewer stars than the Large Magellanic Cloud (left), which also orbits our Milky Way.

V. Belokurov/Univ. of Cambridge/CCA, based on the images by Marcus and Gail Davies and Robert Gendler

Astronomy
Caught: A ghost galaxy that may have hit ours long ago
an illustration of a chemical compound that binds to the pit of a virus

A chemical compound (illustrated at center) binds to a never-before-seen pit on the surface (blue, white and magenta) of a type of disease-causing virus. The interaction stops this enterovirus from reproducing.

James Geraets

Microbes
A surface crater in viruses may be key to keeping colds from spreading
Math & Technology
a photo of a mini Kibble balance

Small enough to fit on a table, this mini Kibble balance measures smaller units of mass, such as a few grams, with amazing accuracy. A Lego figurine perched on the top right holds a 1-gram mass for scale.

Leon Chao/NIST

Physics
This device turns the kilogram’s new definition into a real mass
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