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A black, white and yellow bird known as a honeyeater perches on a flower.

Animals

Here’s how honeyeaters and other birds thrive on sugary diets

Birds that feed on nectar or fruit evolved better mechanisms for managing metabolism, blood pressure and high glucose.

By Bethany Brookshire2 hours ago

A box labeled Human Fecal Material is open with four vials of samples visible.

Health & Medicine

Can you trust the results from gut microbiome tests? Maybe not

By Tina Hesman Saey5 hours ago

A colour enhanced scanning electron micrograph of an Anopheles mosquito

Mosquitoes began biting humans more than a million years ago

By Tom Metcalfe5 hours ago

Animals

Climate change could threaten monarch mass migration

By Erin Garcia de JesúsFebruary 25, 2026

A Falcon 9 upper stage rocket disintegrates into fragments on February 19, 2025.

Earth

Metal pollution from a rocket reentry detected for the first time

By Adam MannFebruary 25, 2026

Two basketball players, shown from the waist down, face off on a court.

Physics

Here’s why sneakers squeak on the basketball court

By Emily ConoverFebruary 25, 2026

An ant is tending to a caterpillar, with its front legs gently touching the larval butterfly.

Animals

Keeping a beat wins caterpillars friends in low places

By Jake BuehlerFebruary 25, 2026

We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

Spotlight on Health

A tear gas canister flies toward a crowd of people.

Tear gas and pepper spray can have lasting health effects

The chemicals are widely used for crowd control, but their long-term health risks are poorly understood.

By Nikk OgasaFebruary 2, 2026
The best way to help Alzheimer’s patients may be to help their caregivers
Widespread use of HPV shots could mean fewer cervical cancer screenings

Science News Magazine

March 2026 issue of Science News

March 1, 2026 Vol. 208 No. 3

From Science News Investors Lab

Featured Media

Kenzi the bonobo being groomed by anohter bonobo

A bonobo’s imaginary tea party suggests apes can play pretend

Apes, like humans, are capable of pretend play, challenging long-held views about how animals think, a new study suggests.

Humpback whales pop their mouths out of the water while seabirds fly overhead.

Canadian humpback whales thrive with a little help from their friends

Two X-rays side by side show a man's new lungs and his old ones, which wew so damaged they could not hold air.

Artificial lungs kept a man alive until he could get a transplant

different animals appearing to experience joy – laughing or smiling. Axolotl, turtle, monkey, horse and dolphin.

Animals experience joy. Scientists want to measure it

This hand stencil in Indonesia is now the oldest known rock art

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More Stories

Life

An African monkey ate a rope squirrel and came down with mpox

By Erin Garcia de JesúsFebruary 24, 2026
There’s life beneath the snow, but it’s at risk of melting away

By Bethany BrookshireJanuary 20, 2026
Watch a cancer cell evade capture

By Meghan RosenDecember 22, 2025

Humans

Have a taste of our favorite food stories from 2025

By Carly KayDecember 24, 2025
‘Black Religion in the Madhouse’ examines psychiatry and race post-Civil War

By Aimee CunninghamDecember 12, 2025
Ancient southern Africans took genetic evolution in a new direction

By Bruce BowerDecember 3, 2025

Climate

Halting irreversible changes to Antarctica depends on choices made today

By Carolyn GramlingFebruary 20, 2026
Snowball Earth might have had a dynamic climate and open seas

By Michael MarshallFebruary 19, 2026
Polar bears in the Barents Sea are staying fat despite rapid sea ice loss

By Rebecca DzombakJanuary 29, 2026

Astronomy

This inside-out planetary system has astronomers scratching their heads

By Adam MannFebruary 12, 2026
A double cosmic explosion could be the first known ‘superkilonova’

By Lisa GrossmanJanuary 9, 2026
Galaxies with ‘hoop skirts’ are more common than we thought

By Lisa GrossmanJanuary 7, 2026

Physics

Physicists dream up ‘spacetime quasicrystals’ that could underpin the universe

By Emily ConoverFebruary 17, 2026
A precise proton measurement helps put a core theory of physics to the test

By Emily ConoverFebruary 11, 2026
The only U.S. particle collider shuts down – so a new one may rise

By Emily ConoverFebruary 6, 2026

Health & Medicine

A lab on wheels is tracking HIV spread in war-torn Ukraine

By Kamal NahasFebruary 24, 2026
This itch-triggering protein also sends signals to stop scratching

By Tina Hesman SaeyFebruary 21, 2026
Meds like Ozempic could ease arthritis

By Meghan RosenFebruary 20, 2026

Earth

Earth’s core may hide dozens of oceans of hydrogen

By Nikk OgasaFebruary 10, 2026
A long-lost tectonic fragment may be shaking Northern California

By Carolyn GramlingJanuary 16, 2026
Some of 2025’s scientific discoveries broke records

By Erin Garcia de JesúsDecember 31, 2025

Science & Society

Project Hail Mary made us wonder how to survive a trip to interstellar space

By Tina Hesman SaeyFebruary 20, 2026
Autistic Barbie reminds us stories have the power to counter misinformation

By Laura SandersFebruary 6, 2026
These scientific discoveries brought us joy in 2025

By Laura SandersJanuary 2, 2026