Space
‘Space: The Longest Goodbye’ explores astronauts’ mental health
The documentary follows NASA astronauts and the psychologists helping them prepare for future long-distance space trips to the moon and Mars.
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
How patient-led research could speed up medical innovation
People with long COVID, ME/CFS and other chronic conditions are taking up science to find symptom relief and inspire new directions for professional scientists.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Animals
Migratory fish species are in drastic decline, a new UN report details
The most comprehensive tally of how migrating animals are faring looks at more than 1,000 land and aquatic species and aims to find ways to protect them.
Notebook
Animals
Here’s how many shark bites there were in 2023
The chance of being bitten by a shark is still incredibly slim, according to a new report from the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Features
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Physicist Sekazi Mtingwa considers himself an apostle of science
After big contributions in accelerator physics, Sekazi Mtingwa has been focused on opening science for everyone.
More Stories from the March 23, 2024 issue
- Animals
The Brazilian flea toad may be the world’s smallest vertebrate
Brazilian flea toads are neither a flea nor a toad, but they are almost flea-sized. The frogs are small enough to fit on a pinkie fingernail.
- Agriculture
Could a rice-meat hybrid be what’s for dinner?
A hybrid food that combines rice, animal cells and fish gelatin could one day be a more sustainable way to produce meat.
- Space
Did the James Webb telescope ‘break the universe’? Maybe not
There’s no need for strange new physics to explain anomalously bright, massive galaxies seen by JWST, Hubble data suggest.
- Health & Medicine
Messed-up metabolism during development may lead guts to coil the wrong way
Tadpoles exposed to a metabolism-disrupting herbicide had malformed intestines, providing clues to a human condition called intestinal malrotation.
- Health & Medicine
Snake venom toxins can be neutralized by a new synthetic antibody
A lab-made protein protected mice from lethal doses of paralyzing toxins found in a variety of snakes, a new study reports.
- Health & Medicine
The United States was on course to eliminate syphilis. Now it’s surging
Science News spoke with expert Allison Agwu about what’s driving the surge and how we can better prevent the disease.
- Climate
Waterlogged soils can give hurricanes new life after they arrive on land
New studies show that the long-hypothesized “brown ocean effect” is real, helping to refuel 2018’s Hurricane Florence and other storms after landfall.
- Animals
Giant tortoise migration in the Galápagos may be stymied by invasive trees
An invasion of Spanish cedar trees on Santa Cruz Island may block the seasonal migration routes of the island's giant tortoise population.
- Environment
How air pollution may make it harder for pollinators to find flowers
Certain air pollutants that build up at night can break down the same fragrance molecules that attract pollinators like hawk moths to primroses.
- Plants
On hot summer days, this thistle is somehow cool to the touch
In hot Spanish summers, the thistle Carlina corymbosa is somehow able to cool itself substantially below air temperature.
- Space
The first U.S. lunar lander since 1972 touches down on the moon
Odysseus, the first spacecraft to land on the moon since NASA’s Apollo 17, ended up tipped on its side but it appears to be operating OK.
- Planetary Science
Odysseus’ historic moon mission comes to an end
Odysseus downloaded data from all payloads before going to sleep February 28. The cold lunar night proved fatal to efforts to reawaken the lunar lander.
- Health & Medicine
Taking a weight-loss drug reduced a craving for opioids
Early results from 20 people with opioid use disorder raise hopes that popular weight-loss drugs like Wegovy can tackle opioid addiction, too.
- Agriculture
Mixing up root microbes can boost tea’s flavor
Inoculating tea plant roots with nitrogen-metabolizing bacteria enhances synthesis of theanine, an amino acid that gives tea its savoriness.
- Climate
‘On the Move’ examines how climate change will alter where people live
Journalist Abrahm Lustgarten explores which parts of the United States are most vulnerable to the effects of global warming and how people's lives might change.
- Space
50 years ago, scientists found a lunar rock nearly as old as the moon
Studies of such rocks continue to reveal secrets about the moon’s history.
