All Stories

  1. Animals

    Hand-feeding squirrels accidentally changed their skulls

    When fed peanuts, red squirrels in Britain developed weaker bites — showing that food supplements to threatened animals could have unintended side effects.

    By
  2. Health & Medicine

    Obesity needs a new definition beyond BMI, health experts argue

    Experts say clinical obesity is more than a high BMI and instead is a disease in which excess body fat harms tissues, organs or doing daily activities.

    By
  3. Environment

    A podcast challenges us to reassess our relationship with wildfires

    United by Fire lays out key insights from the two largest blazes in Colorado history, the Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires of 2020.

    By
  4. Health & Medicine

    Got a cold? A placebo might help

    Amid doubts over a common decongestant, evidence suggests the placebo effect can still help people suffering from a cold.

    By
  5. Cosmology

    How we might finally find black holes from the cosmic dawn

    After decades of study, scientists sound genuinely optimistic about the possibility of detecting primordial black holes, which might explain dark matter.

    By
  6. Health & Medicine

    U.S. dementia cases may rise to 1 million per year by 2060 

    Baby Boomers may drive a drastic increase in dementia cases in coming decades, but there are steps people can take to reduce their risk.

    By
  7. Tech

    Flying cars could soon become a reality

    Engineers have all the technology they need to make flying cars, but there are still some barriers to getting these sci-fi mainstays off the ground.

    By
  8. Readers react to Betelgeuse’s buddy, the 2024 Nobels and small nuclear reactor waste

    By
  9. Enter a new era for our storied magazine

    Editor in chief Nancy Shute introduces the new look and format of Science News, as it moves from publishing biweekly to monthly.

    By
  10. Climate

    2024 was Earth’s hottest year on record, passing a dangerous warming threshold

    Global temperatures were the hottest on record in 2024; it was the first year where the average temperature topped 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial times.

    By
  11. Health & Medicine

    AI could transform health care, but will it live up to the hype?

    AI has the potential to make health care more effective, equitable and humane. Whether the tech delivers on these promises remains to be seen.

    By and
  12. Humans

    How child soldiers heal after the trauma of war

    For more than two decades, Theresa Betancourt has studied Sierra Leone’s former child soldiers. Her new book Shadows into Light tells their stories.

    By