Feature
- Health & Medicine
Why are so many young people getting cancer?
Diagnoses for several cancers before age 50 have been increasing rapidly since the 1990s. Scientists don’t know why, but they have a few suspects.
- Health & Medicine
Cancer patients froze reproductive tissue as kids. Now they’re coming back for it
Saving reproductive tissue from kids treated for cancer before adolescence could give them a chance at having biological children later in life.
- Space
How a Harvard maverick forever changed our concept of the stars
At just 25, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin applied quantum physics to a treasure trove of astronomical observations to show that stars are mostly hydrogen and helium.
- Space
The Vera Rubin Observatory is ready to revolutionize astronomy
Sporting the world’s largest digital camera, the new telescope is poised to help solve some of the universe’s biggest mysteries.
- Math
See how fractals forever changed math and science
Over the last half 50 years, fractals have challenged ideas about geometry and pushed math, science and technology into unexpected areas.
- Earth
How hot can Earth get? Our planet’s climate history holds clues
Earth has survived huge temperature swings over eons of climate change. Humans might not be so lucky.
- Humans
No, shaken baby syndrome has not been discredited
Defense lawyers have called shaken baby syndrome, or abusive head trauma, junk science. But doctors say shaking a baby is dangerous.
- Oceans
Deep-sea mining could start soon — before we understand its risks
The U.S. push to mine international waters for metals defies global efforts to control and protect these fragile ecosystems.
- Animals
50 years after ‘Jaws,’ sharks face their own terror
Humans have driven sharks and their cousins to the brink of extinction. The health of the entire ocean is at stake.
- Humans
100 years after the Scopes trial, science is still under attack
In 1925, John Scopes was indicted for teaching evolution. Science News looks at the forces that led to the trial and how expertise was the big loser.
- Quantum Physics
As quantum mechanics turns 100, a new revolution is under way
With greater control over the quantum realm, physicists are poised to make major leaps in quantum computing, quantum gravity and more.
- Plants
Cryopreservation is not sci-fi. It may save plants from extinction
Not all plants can be stored in a seed bank. Cryopreservation offers an alternative, but critics question whether this form of conservation will work.
