All Stories
- Paleontology
In a first, scientists spot what may be lungs in an ancient bird fossil
Possible traces of lungs preserved with a 120-million-year-old bird fossil could represent a respiratory system similar to that of modern birds.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, the safety of artificial sweeteners was fiercely debated
Scientists are still learning more about the health effects of chemical sweeteners
- Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence crowdsources data to speed up drug discovery
A new AI that judges whether drugs will interact with certain proteins can train on data from multiple sources while keeping that info secret.
- Climate
More tornadoes are popping up east of the Mississippi
Tornadoes are becoming slightly less frequent in Tornado Alley, while more are touching down farther east in the United States, a study suggests.
- Archaeology
The water system that helped Angkor rise may have also brought its fall
A complex water system magnified flooding’s disruption of the medieval Cambodian city of Angkor.
- Earth
These ancient mounds may not be the earliest fossils on Earth after all
A new analysis suggests that tectonics, not microbes, formed cone-shaped structures in 3.7-billion-year-old rock.
- Life
Dandelion seeds create a bizarre whirlpool in the air to fly
Researchers have deciphered the physics underlying dandelion flight.
- Particle Physics
What the electron’s near-perfect roundness means for new physics
The electron remains stubbornly round, meaning we may need to build beyond the Large Hadron Collider to find physics outside of the standard model.
- Astronomy
Readers wonder about a hydrogen wall, pig lung transplants and more
Readers had questions about a glow at the edge of the solar system, pig lung transplants, the use of the word promiscuous and more.
- Science & Society
Waking up early to cover science’s biggest honor
Editor in Chief Nancy Shute discusses how the Science News editors and reporters cover the Nobel Prizes each year.
- Health & Medicine
A mysterious polio-like disease has sickened as many as 127 people in the U.S.
Medical experts are trying to trace the cause of 62 confirmed cases of acute flaccid myelitis this year.
- Archaeology
An ancient child’s ‘vampire burial’ included steps to prevent resurrection
A 10-year-old skeleton in a Roman cemetery had a stone placed in its mouth to prevent the youngster from rising from the dead, researchers say.
