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Green tendrils connect puffs of green and magenta of various sizes against a black background

Life

Here are some stellar picks from Nikon’s top microscopy images of 2024

The annual Small World photomicrography competition, now in its 50th year, puts life’s smallest details under the microscope.

By Erin Garcia de Jesús12 hours ago

An image taken under a microscope shows two phytoplankton, one at bottom left a fraction of the size of the one in the center of the image. The single-celled organisms swell to the larger size, allowing them to rise up the water column in the ocean.

Oceans

How tiny phytoplankton trek long distances upward in the ocean

By Gennaro Tomma11 hours ago

A bright light streaks across a starry, rosy-purple night sky on the left side of this image. An array of many radio telescopes are seen in the foreground.

Planetary Science

The cataclysmic origins of most of Earth’s meteorites have been found

By Robin George AndrewsOctober 16, 2024

A dead ant lies on its back on the tip of a carnivorous sundew plant's q-tip shaped leaf

Plants

Carnivorous plants eat faster with a fungal friend

By Erin Garcia de JesúsOctober 16, 2024

A hemisphere of Jupiter's moon Europa, which looks white with criss-crossed dark cracks.

Planetary Science

NASA’s Europa mission is a homecoming for one planetary astronomer

By Lisa GrossmanOctober 15, 2024

Orange cat squeezes through a crack in the door.

Animals

At-home experiments shed light on cats’ liquid behavior

By Andrea TamayoOctober 15, 2024

a nose with two odors going in

Your brain can perceive subtle odor changes in a single sniff

By Nora BradfordOctober 14, 2024

Spotlight on Health

An image shows a mouse's spine overlaid with colors indicating radioactive decays. The region of highest activity overlaps with a tumor region circled in red.

Radioactive beams give a real-time view of cancer treatment in mice

This first successful treatment of tumors with radioactive ion beams could one day lead to treating human patients’ tumors with millimeter precision.

By Emily ConoverOctober 11, 2024
A viral gene drive could offer a new approach to fighting herpes
New electrical stitches use muscle movement to speed up healing

From the Archives

Now You See It; Now You Don’t

October 12, 1974 Vol. 106 No. #15

Science News Magazine

October 5, 2024 Vol. 206 No. 5

Featured Media

A moving gif of Hurricane Milton bearing down on the coast of Florida on October 9. The main part of the storm is a deep red with the eye of the storm clearly visible.

Climate change fueled the fury of hurricanes Helene and Milton

Two new studies find climate change amped up sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, fueling the hurricanes' intensity.

A white mouse runs on exercsise wheel. The background is green.

Semaglutide saps mice’s motivation to run

A looping animation of two transparent sea creatures, fused together, both contracting when prodded with a thin rod.

These sea creatures can fuse their bodies

Sketches of Nobel prize winners David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper.

Work on protein structure and design wins the 2024 chemistry Nobel

A GIF of a head outlined with simple eyes and a nose, shown from the side as black squiggly lines writhe around it

A brain network linked to attention is larger in people with depression

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More Stories

Life

The fruit fly revolutionized biology. Now it’s boosting science in Africa

By Darren IncorvaiaOctober 1, 2024
This biophysicist’s work could one day let doctors control immune cells

By Meghan RosenSeptember 23, 2024
Mega El Niños kicked off the world’s worst mass extinction

By Jake BuehlerSeptember 12, 2024

Humans

World record speeds for two Olympics events have fallen over time. We can go faster

By Erin Garcia de JesúsJuly 12, 2024
Does social status shape height?

By Sujata GuptaJune 28, 2024
Rain Bosworth studies how deaf children experience the world

By Meghan RosenApril 26, 2024

Climate

Why Hurricane Helene was so devastating

By Nikk OgasaOctober 1, 2024
How rapid intensification spawned two monster hurricanes in one week

By Carolyn GramlingSeptember 27, 2024
A thousands-year-old log demonstrates how burying wood can fight climate change

By Jonathan LambertSeptember 26, 2024

Astronomy

Runaway stars could influence the cosmos far past their home galaxies

By Lisa GrossmanOctober 9, 2024
Barnard’s star has at least one planet orbiting it after all

By Sid PerkinsOctober 4, 2024
Betelgeuse has a tiny companion star hidden in plain sight

By Lisa GrossmanSeptember 30, 2024

Physics

Thunderstorms churn up a ‘boiling pot’ of gamma rays

By Emily ConoverOctober 2, 2024
X-rays from nuclear blasts could defend Earth from asteroids

By Nikk OgasaSeptember 23, 2024
How to spot tiny black holes that might pass through the solar system

By Emily ConoverSeptember 17, 2024

Health & Medicine

Blood pressure may read falsely high if the arm isn’t positioned properly

By Aimee CunninghamOctober 7, 2024
An mRNA vaccine protected mice against deadly intestinal C. difficile bacteria

By Jonathan LambertOctober 3, 2024
Brain-controlled bionic limbs are inching closer to reality

By Simon MakinOctober 3, 2024

Earth

What leads rivers to suddenly change course?

By Nikk OgasaOctober 10, 2024
Reactive dust from Great Salt Lake may have health consequences

By Skyler WareSeptember 26, 2024
How earthquakes build beefy gold nuggets

By Nikk OgasaSeptember 9, 2024

Science & Society

There’s a new term for attempting to own the wind: ventography

By Sujata GuptaOctober 10, 2024
This researcher studies how misinformation seeps into science and politics

By Sujata GuptaSeptember 23, 2024
10 early-career scientists tackling some of the biggest problems of today

By Science News StaffSeptember 23, 2024