Science News for Students

Climate change makes seas rise faster and faster

an aerial photo of a flooded street in Ho Chi Minh City, scooters and cars are driving through the floodwaters

Traffic keeps flowing on a flooded street in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Sea levels are rising around the world, but they are rising more quickly in some places than in others.

xuanhuongho/iStockPhoto

Explainer: Why sea levels aren't rising at the same rate globally

a scenic photo of Jamaica Bay in New York City

Looking out over Jamaica Bay in New York City. Climate change will bring more frequent storms and sea level rise. Both threaten buildings and wildlife habitat in the general area with floods.

stefko/iStockphoto

Building resilience to climate’s emerging impacts

a photo of huge stone statue figures at Rapa Nui, or Easter Island

These huge stone statues are at Rapa Nui, or Easter Island. This Chilean island lies 3,500 kilometers (almost 2,200 miles) west of the mainland, deep in the Pacific Ocean. The island is one of many places worldwide that are vulnerable to sea-level rise.

Babak Fakhamzadeh/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Archaeology

Rising seas threaten thousands of world cultural sites

a photo at water level showing beachhomes on stilts next to the incoming ocean water

The beach that used to be in front of these North Carolina homes has eroded away. Such land loss can eventually undermine and destroy the buildings.

summersetretrievers/iStockphoto

How three coastal communities are dealing with rising seas

A microscopic image of a spiky round orange amoeba snacking on an algal cell.

Top Story

Amoebas are crafty, shape-shifting engineers

They can change form, build shells, punch holes in prey — even farm their own food

a starry night sky over power pylons and high-voltage power lines

This grid moves energy, but not always reliably

Engineers are working to make the distribution of electricity more reliable and resilient

a photo of high-voltage electrical lines stretching towards the horizon to meet the support towers closer to the horizon

Explainer: What is the electric grid?

Round-the-clock work keeps the giant network going so the lights stay on

a photo of a group of Adélie penguins standing on a rocky surface

To monitor penguin diet from satellites, look to poop

Landsat imagery can tell scientists what foods Adélie penguins are eating

a pair of hands getting ready to shoot a rubber band

Physics

High-speed video reveals the best way to shoot a rubber band

Physics can help you avoid hitting your thumb when you fire

Sponsor

Editor's Picks

Army officers Ethan Diven and Evan Lewandowski soldier through frigid winter weather toward a pickup point after a successful training exercise at Deadhorse, Alaska in February 2017.

Staff Sgt Daniel Love, U.S. Army

Materials Science

U.S. Army is developing high-tech underwear

This artist’s illustration depicts what a possible mission to Mars might look like. To make it reality, though, scientists must first solve a lot of problems.

e71lena/iStockphoto

Space

Preparing for that trip to Mars

The distracted teenage brain

Trending

xuanhuongho/iStockphoto

Climate change makes seas rise faster and faster

a photo of a three stages of blood moon eclipse from July 2018 showcasing a very red moon in the middle image

During a "total" lunar eclipse, the moon will remain partially visible in the sky but take on a dark red hue.

Bernd Thaller/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Distant volcano could turn latest lunar eclipse dark red

Psychology

What makes a pretty face?

Behavior

Zombies are real!

a photo of a glassy-winged sharpshooter sitting on vegetation

How some insects fling their pee

Sharpshooters hurl liquid waste at an acceleration up to 20 times Earth’s gravity

These are gelatinous creatures that live in water

Scientists Say: Jellies

a photo of a tornado in El Reno,Oklahoma

New research may alter what we know about how tornadoes form

As the climate changes, twister behavior on the ground is changing, as well

a photo showing a supercell storm creating a tornado at the horizon of the picture

Supercell: It’s the king of thunderstorms

They can fling out tornadoes and more

Distant volcano could turn latest lunar eclipse dark red

Pollution spewed by Anak Krakatau’s eruption in Indonesia may darken an already red moon

Blogs

This lovely creature is a comb jelly. It’s a jelly but not a jellyfish.

S. Zielinski/SNS

Scientists Say: Jellies

Planets orbiting far away stars may have moons. Scientists are hunting these potential exomoons.

NASA/ESA/L. Hustak

Analyze This: Most teen girls don’t meet guidelines for daily exercise

Scientists Say: Exomoon

a photo fo several teen girls playing basketball on an indoor court

Playing a sport like basketball is a great way to get exercise, but many teens aren’t getting the recommended daily amount of healthful activity.

monkeybusinessimages/iStockphoto

Analyze This!

It’s pretty, but don’t be fooled. This is the opium poppy, the flower that produces the painkiller opium — the namesake for opioid drugs.

Louise Joly/Wikipedia Commons (CC BY-SA 1.0)

Scientists Say: Opioid

Body & Brain

a photo of a woman in a white lab coat drawing blood from a young woman's arm

Keep your cool. If you expect someone sticking a needle into your arm will not hurt much, you may actually experience less pain, a new study shows.

AlexRaths/iStockphoto

Expecting pain? That could really make it hurt worse

a close up of goose bumps on someone's arm

The hormone and nervous reactions that make the pupils of your eyes dilate, your heart race and your skin break out in goose bumps may also make hair grow.

HELIVIDEO/istockphoto

Body functions

Goose bumps may have hairy benefits

an illustration of the brain as a blue wireframe

Using a marijuana-like drug during adolescence may damage decision-making structures in the brain, a new study finds.

Jolygon/iStockphoto

Marijuana use may affect decision-making areas in teen brains

an lillustration of a bird sitting on a branch during a snowfall, with the text "2018 Reader's Top Picks" in the middle of the image

What were you all reading this year? Read on!

Nancy Moulding/SNS

Here’s the science you loved in 2018

a photo of Ron Clarke, a pealeoanthropologist, excavating the skull of a skeleton embedded in a cave

Human evolution

A skeleton named ‘Little Foot’ causes big debate

Researchers disagree over whether the fossil hominid belongs to a new species

a photo of Somalians standing in line waiting for food

Climate change greatly intensified many 2017 weather events

From droughts to deluges, scientists link 16 extreme events to global warming

Expecting pain? That could really make it hurt worse

How much we think something will hurt can affect how much pain we feel

Planets

This is a moon that orbits a planet outside of our solar system

Scientists Say: Exomoon

a photo of a female T. magnus spider with some of her spiderlings

This spider feeds a type of milk to its babies

Even after spiderlings start to hunt for food, they return to mom for milk

Space

During a "total" lunar eclipse, the moon will remain partially visible in the sky but take on a dark red hue.

Bernd Thaller/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Distant volcano could turn latest lunar eclipse dark red

Commonly called ‘shooting stars,’ these streaks of light in the night sky are meteors caused by bits of space rock crashing into Earth’s atmosphere. The ones shown here are part of the annual Geminid shower.

sripfoto/iStockphoto

Astronomy

Catch a ‘shooting star’ this month — and most others

An illustration of what it might have looked like just before the InSight lander touched down on Mars. Pictured: a saucer shaped lander with three legs close the the Martian surface

This is an artist’s view of what it might have looked like when the InSight was about to touch down on Mars. The craft successfully landed November 26 on the Red Planet.

JPL-CALTECH/NASA

Space

Quake-scouting lander safely touches down on Mars

Here’s an artist’s depiction of the Kepler space telescope at work scouting planets orbiting distant stars. Over its lifetime, this spacecraft turned up more than 2,700.

NASA

Space

R.I.P. Kepler, the planet-hunting telescope

Invention & Innovation

a photo of a person writing "Bye" on rewritable paper

A special pen heats the blue ink on this rewritable paper. As the ink warms, it turns clear. The white paper beneath reveals a written message.

Luzhuo Chen

Chemistry

This rewritable paper depends on disappearing ink

A soft and squishy robo-jellyfish pumps its way gently through the ocean, providing little or no disturbance to local sea life.

Jennifer Frame, Nick Lopez, Oscar Curet and Erik D. Engeberg/IOP Publishing

Robotics

This robotic jellyfish is a climate spy

A microscopic image showing Naegleria fowleri, also known as brain-eating amoebas

Parasites belonging to the species Naegleria fowleri, sometimes known as brain-eating amoebas, can destroy brain tissue — and kill human victims within a week.

Govinda S. Visvesvara/CDC

Health

Silver nanoparticles help fight brain-eating amoebas

an image of a smoke detector on the ceiling and smoke wafting below it

It took over two minutes for high-pitched smoke alarms to wake kids up. It took a motherly voice just two seconds.

nikkytok/iStockphoto

New smoke alarm tests a mother’s touch

Chemistry

This rewritable paper depends on disappearing ink

Words and pictures last at least six months and can be rewritten and erased up to 100 times

Here’s the science you loved in 2018

Diamonds and smartphones and chocolate, oh my!

an image showing an illustration of snowy trees and mountains with the text "2018 Editors' Top Picks" overlaid at the top of the image

ICYMI: 2018’s top science offerings

From gene-edited babies to firenados and lavanados, the year offered both stunning news and curiosities

a movie still from Aquaman showing a row of large sharks with aquatic riders in front of an underwater building with large columns

What makes Aquaman special? He can take a lot of pressure

Technically Fiction

Here’s why people won’t be living under the sea anytime soon

a photo of a person's feet in a hammock looking out over a scenic backdrop

Body functions

Keeping an irregular schedule may change how many calories you burn

A biological clock controls the body’s rate of energy use

Latest Headlines

A failure of the electric system can quickly leave millions of people in the dark.

Vadven/iStockphoto

This grid moves energy, but not always reliably

High-voltage electric lines are part of the giant network that makes up the electric grid.

Chris Hunkeler/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Explainer: What is the electric grid?

Poop can make things messy for Adélie penguins. But it can also provide information about the birds. That includes where they are and what they’re eating.

Liam Quinn/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

To monitor penguin diet from satellites, look to poop

To understand how rubber bands fly, scientists studied video of elastic launching off of thumbs and cylinders.

Devonyu/iStockphoto

Physics

High-speed video reveals the best way to shoot a rubber band

Math & Technology

A failure of the electric system can quickly leave millions of people in the dark.

Vadven/iStockphoto

This grid moves energy, but not always reliably

High-voltage electric lines are part of the giant network that makes up the electric grid.

Chris Hunkeler/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)