Animals
A new book asks: What makes humans call some animals pests?
In an interview with Science News, science journalist Bethany Brookshire discusses her new book, Pests, and why humans vilify certain animals.
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
Artemis missions will usher in a new, more diverse crew of astronauts
Space agencies are preparing to send the next generation of astronauts to the moon and beyond. Here’s how the next crews will be different from the last ones.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Life
Certain young fruit flies’ eyes literally pop out of their head
The first published photo sequence of developing Pelmatops flies shows how their eyes rise on gangly stalks in the first hour of adulthood.
Notebook
Animals
Bizarre aye-aye primates take nose picking to the extreme
A nose-picking aye-aye’s spindly middle finger probably reaches all the way to the back of the throat, CT scans suggest.
Features
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Artemis I finally launched. Here’s what it means for human spaceflight
The launch of NASA's Artemis I is a giant step toward sending humans back to the moon and heading beyond.
More Stories from the December 3, 2022 issue
- Physics
50 years ago, physicists found the speed of light
In the 1970s, scientists set a new maximum speed limit for light. Fifty years later, they continue putting light through its paces.
- Chemistry
Mixing gold ions into whiskey can reveal its flavor
By changing the spirit’s color, the formation of gold nanoparticles can reveal how much flavor a whiskey has absorbed from its wood cask.
- Animals
Deer-vehicle collisions spike when daylight saving time ends
In the week after much of the United States turns the clock back, scientists found a 16 percent increase in crashes between vehicles and deer.
- Astronomy
Part of a lost, ancient star catalog has now been found
Greek astronomer Hipparchus may be the first to try to precisely map the stars. His lost work turned up on parchment that had been erased and reused.
- Physics
Crowdsourced cell phone data could keep bridges safe and strong
Accelerometers and GPS sensors in smartphones could provide frequent, real-time data on bridge vibrations, and alert engineers to changes in integrity
- Health & Medicine
A major malaria outbreak in Ethiopia came from an invasive Asian mosquito
Malaria may become a much bigger problem in Africa’s cities if the invasive mosquito continues to spread.
- Health & Medicine
Cat allergies may be tamed by adding an asthma therapy to allergy shots
Adding an antibody already used to treat asthma to standard allergy shots improved cat allergy symptoms for a least a year, a small study finds.
- Planetary Science
Marsquakes hint that the planet might be volcanically active after all
Seismic data recorded by NASA’s InSight lander suggest molten rock moves tens of kilometers below the planet’s fractured Cerberus Fossae region.
- Animals
Insect swarms might generate as much electric charge as storm clouds
Honeybees flying over a sensor measuring atmospheric voltage sparked a look into how insect-induced static electricity might affect the atmosphere.
- Archaeology
Drone photos reveal an early Mesopotamian city made of marsh islands
Urban growth around 4,600 years ago, near what is now southern Iraq, occurred on marshy outposts that lacked a city center.
