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Chatbots can generate images and videos of people projected years or decades into the future.

Artificial Intelligence

Struggling with a hard life choice? AI future selves have tips

A chat with aged avatars of future selves can guide people paralyzed by tough decisions. The question is what information to feed the bots.

By Sujata Gupta2 hours ago

illustration of the 4 different types of black holes: primordial, stellar, intermediate, and supermassive, over a background of space.

What kinds of black holes exist — and how are they different?

By Mandana Tadayon and Lisa Grossman4 hours ago

China's Chang'e-6 spacecraft sitting on the moon.

Planetary Science

Different moon rocks tell different tales about a long-ago bombardment

By Lisa Grossman23 hours ago

Comic speech balloons with different patterns represent the tens of thousands of languages spoken a few thousand years ago.

Science & Society

The golden age of language was a few thousand years ago

By Sujata Gupta23 hours ago

An underwater image of a black and white orca swimming seemingly alone.

Animals

Watch an orca ram into a sunfish so hard it explodes

By Maria TemmingJuly 23, 2026

An illustration of a prehistoric snake burrowing underground with birds and dinosaurs in the background.

A rare 3-D snake fossil is ssspilling sssecrets of its unusual lifestyle

By Libby RiddleJuly 22, 2026

An illustration shows a glowing Jupiter-size object in the foreground, a brown dwarf behind it and a star as a bright point beyond.

A newly found world blurs the boundary between planet and moon

By Lisa GrossmanJuly 22, 2026

We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

Spotlight on Wildfire Smoke and Health

photo of a baseball stadium with a cityscape obscured by smoke in the background

Wildfires aren’t going away. Here’s how smoke can affect your health

How does repeat exposure to wildfire smoke affect our health? Three experts weigh in on the massive air pollution fueled by Canada’s ongoing fires.

By Meghan RosenJuly 12, 2023
Western wildfires’ health risks extend across the country
Wildfire smoke may cause tens of thousands of premature deaths

Science News Magazine

August 2026 issue of Science News

August 1, 2026 Vol. 208 No. 8

From Science News Investors Lab

Featured Media

A satellite image of hot sea surface temperatures, shown by shades of red and orange, in the eastern Pacific Ocean that signaled the start of an El Niño event.

Can geoengineering blunt El Niño’s fury?

Marine cloud brightening could cool part of the Pacific and weaken extreme El Niños, simulations suggest. But the approach could have risks.

Pickles glow when you plug them in. Science explains why

A landscape of a tropical rainforest canopy with trees of various heights

Giant trees have tricks to work around drought

a collage of images from items on display at the Smithsonian museum of natural history overlaid on a photo of the museum building. items include fossils, a bird, a crab, a bison, and butterflies.

The natural history of every U.S. state is on display at a new D.C. exhibit

A tan, long, skinny shark is seen on the seafloor resting on colorful rocks. It sports a pattern of dark brown spots and white dashes.

A new species of walking shark has been found in Papua New Guinea

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Life

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Physics

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Earth

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