About Century of Science

In 1921, newspaper magnate E.W. Scripps founded a nonprofit news service to meet what he saw as a glaring need: to provide accurate, engaging news of science for the public. A hundred years on, Science News remains true to that mission. In celebration of our 100 years of continuous independent coverage, we invite you to experience a Century of Science. 

Century of Science delves into major advances across the sciences that have transformed our understanding of the world and our universe, and our lives. They include Earth’s history, human evolution, the genetic revolution, climate change, the workings of our brains and the vastness of the cosmos. Watch for a new arena of science, what we’re calling a “Theme,” to be unveiled monthly through March 2022. 

The project goes far beyond highlighting history. We’re also connecting current events to the currents of the past. “Connections” feature ideas that cut across time and scientific disciplines, including the unsung characters who have made scientific discoveries possible, the many ways that the language we use affects science and how people understand it, and the role of technology in opening new scientific vistas. The “Milestones” page makes it easy to browse more than a hundred scientific advances and discoveries by decade. You’ll also be able to explore by “Theme” and “Connection” to find the milestones that most interest you.

Our Century of Science project is made possible through generous donations from our sponsors.

Science News Archive

All of the content you’ll find on Century of Science is grounded in the more than 80,000 articles in the Science News archive, which stretches back to our early days as a wire service. It’s a record of science as it happened, and reflects the ideas, attitudes and biases of the time. Our journalists traveled to Tennessee in 1925 to cover the Scopes trial, which questioned whether evolution and “modern science” could be taught in schools, and were on the scene at Bikini Atoll to witness the 1946 atomic weapons tests. Our archive charts the growth of the fields of genetics, radio astronomy and quantum mechanics, and covers all of modern computing, the atomic age, the AIDS epidemic and space exploration. Browse the archive by year at www.sciencenews.org/sn-magazine.  

We hope you’ll join us as we look back on a Century of Science, and look ahead to what’s next. Whether you want to dive in or dabble, there’s plenty here to surprise and delight. And please reach out with your own stories via feedback@sciencenews.org, and join the conversation on Twitter by following @ScienceNews and #SN100.

Republish Century of Science content

In keeping with our mission to provide independent, unbiased coverage of science and give people tools to evaluate the news and the world around them, we invite nonprofit organizations, museums, science centers, colleges and universities, associations, and the media to share Century of Science content with their audiences at no cost. For information on this limited, revocable, royalty-free license, as well as other partnership opportunities, see the Century of Science Partnership Toolkit User Guide. If you republish Century of Science content, please let us know using this form.