Science & Society

  1. Science & Society

    COVID-19 has killed a million Americans. Our minds can’t comprehend that number

    We intuitively compare large, approximate quantities but cannot grasp such a big, abstract number as a million U.S. COVID-19 deaths.

    By Sujata Gupta
  2. Science & Society

    Pressure to conform to social norms may explain risky COVID-19 decisions

    As a science reporter covering COVID-19, I knew I should mask up at Disney World. Instead, I conformed, bared my face and got COVID-19.

    By Sujata Gupta
  3. Humans

    Eating meat is the Western norm. But norms can change

    A meat-heavy diet, with its high climate costs, is the norm in the West. So social scientists are working to upend normal.

    By Sujata Gupta
  4. Science & Society

    Why it’s so hard for a one-hit wonder to have a lasting music career

    An analysis of nearly 3 million pop songs from 1959 to 2010 shows fame is a dance between similarity and innovation.

    By Chris Gorski
  5. Psychology

    Latin America defies cultural theories based on East-West comparisons

    Theories for how people think in individualist versus collectivist nations stem from East-West comparisons. Latin America challenges those theories.

    By Sujata Gupta
  6. Health & Medicine

    Why taking medications during pregnancy is so confusing

    It's hard to know what new drugs are safe when medical research excludes pregnant people.

    By Erika Engelhaupt
  7. Science & Society

    ‘Paradise Falls’ thrusts readers into the Love Canal disaster

    ‘Paradise Falls’ tells the story of the Love Canal environmental tragedy from the point of view of the people who lived near the former dump site.

    By Erika Engelhaupt
  8. Science & Society

    Ukrainian identity solidified for 30 years. Putin ignored the science

    Social scientists have mapped Ukrainian allegiances shifting from Russia toward Ukraine since the country’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

    By Sujata Gupta
  9. Tech

    50 years ago, the future of solar energy looked bright

    In the 1970s, scientists and engineers were coming around to the idea of “farming” the sun’s energy on a large scale.

    By Aina Abell
  10. Science & Society

    Here are the Top 10 times scientific imagination failed

    Some scientists of the past couldn’t imagine that atoms or gravity waves could one day be studied – or nuclear energy harnessed.

    By Tom Siegfried
  11. Climate

    Wally Broecker divined how the climate could suddenly shift

    Wally Broecker’s insight into the shutdown of the great ocean conveyor belt spurred the study of abrupt climate change.

    By Alexandra Witze
  12. Science & Society

    How Science News has been a training ground for young science journalists

    A long-standing internship along with informal mentorship are part of the tradition at Science News.

    By Maria Temming