Science News

Science News is a bi-weekly magazine in the United States that focuses on brief articles discussing the latest advancements in science and technology, often sourced from up-to-date scientific journals. This publication has been in circulation since 1922 and is produced by the Society for Science & the Public, a non-profit organization established by E. W. Scripps in 1920. Edwin Slosson, an American chemist, was the magazine's inaugural editor. Originally named Science News Letter from 1922 until 1966, the magazine rebranded to Science News starting with its March 12, 1966 issue (volume 89, number 11).

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Precolonial farmers thrived in one of North America’s coldest places

1 day ago | sciencenews.org | Bruce Bower

A laser eye-in-the-sky has uncovered vast, ancient farm fields in an unlikely place — the frosty forests of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Ancestors of present-day Menominee people, a federally recognized Native American tribe, grew maize and other crops in densely clustered earthen ridges from around 1,000 to 400 years ago, researchers report in the June 5 Science.
Small earthquakes can have a big impact on the movements of major faults

2 days ago | sciencenews.org | Nikk Ogasa

Seismic symphonies of minor earthquakes may affect grand movements on major faults. Small and distant earthquakes can disrupt the growth of slow-slip events — gradual fault movements that can release tremendous amounts of energy at gentle tempos, a new analysis of seismic data suggests. Reported in the May 16 Science Advances, the research shows that the more frequently small earthquakes occur near a fault’s slow-slip zone, the less synchronized the slipping becomes.
Flamingos create precise water vortices in a shrimp-hunting frenzy

2 days ago | sciencenews.org | Elie Dolgin

Tornado-generating beaks and whirlpool-stirring feet help flamingos transform shallow waters into shrimp-swirling death zones — corralling agile prey with the flair of a Las Vegas stage act and the efficiency of a Dyson vacuum. That’s the takeaway from a study published May 12 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that combined high-speed video, fluid dynamics experiments and 3-D-printed flamingo parts to reveal the mechanics behind the birds’ underwater feeding frenzies.
Muons’ magnetism matches theory, easing an enduring physics conundrum

3 days ago | sciencenews.org | Emily Conover

One of the most enduring mysteries of particle physics may be finally resolved, two new studies suggest. The oddities of muons, subatomic particles that are relatives of electrons, are starting to make sense. Muons have an internal magnetism that scientists have struggled to pin down: Measurements of a magnetic quirk of the particles have long clashed with theoretical predictions.
A dwarf galaxy just might upend the Milky Way's predicated demise

4 days ago | sciencenews.org | Nikk Ogasa

It may come down to a coin toss as to whether the Milky Way collides with the Andromeda Galaxy within 10 billion years. While scientists have previously reported that a convergence was certain, an analysis of the latest data suggests the odds are only about 50 percent, researchers report June 2 in Nature Astronomy. The Milky Way’s largest satellite system — the Large Magellanic Cloud — may be our galaxy’s saving grace, the study shows.
Venus’ tectonics may be actively reshaping its surface

1 week ago | sciencenews.org | Nikk Ogasa

Things may be moving on Venus’ surface. In 1983, researchers discovered that the planet’s surface was speckled with strange, circular landforms. These rounded mountain belts, known as coronae, have no known Earthly counterparts, and they’ve remained enigmatic for decades. But hot plumes of rock upwelling from Venus’ mantle are shaping the mysterious landforms, a new analysis suggests.
Males weren’t always bigger than females in this hominid species

1 week ago | sciencenews.org | Bruce Bower

An ancient, distant human cousin from southern Africa called Paranthropus robustus has for the first time revealed molecular clues to its evolutionary status. Protein sequences preserved in four partial P. robustus teeth from different individuals that lived roughly 2 million years ago indicate that larger and smaller fossils of this hominid species cannot always be classed as male or female, as previously thought, researchers report in the May 29 Science.
Students’ mental health imperiled by $1 billion cuts to school funding

1 week ago | sciencenews.org | Sujata Gupta

Four-year-old Elijah’s task was to draw a penguin, his favorite animal, and then rip up the paper so the scraps could be used for another project. The adults leading the project hoped that making Elijah uncomfortable would help the preschooler navigate similar tricky situations in his daily life. “He was not having it,” recalls Elijah’s mother, Janet Walton. “He freaked out.”For most toddlers, ripping up a beloved drawing would be a challenging ask. But Elijah’s struggles went beyond the norm.
Genetics might save the rare, elusive saola — if it's not already extinct

1 week ago | sciencenews.org | Tom Metcalfe

It’s not looking good for the saola. If it still exists, it is one of the world’s rarest large mammals — a deerlike creature from the mountainous rainforests of Vietnam and Laos that’s been called “Asia’s unicorn” because of its scarcity. But the last living saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) was seen in 2013, in photographs from a motion-triggered trail camera. Even hopeful experts think there are now fewer than 100 still alive.
Earth could be flung out of orbit by a passing star

1 week ago | sciencenews.org | Ken Croswell

Bad news, earthlings. Computer simulations of the solar system’s future reveal a new risk facing us all: The gravitational tug of a passing star could either cause another planet to smack into Earth or else fling our planet into the sun or far away from it, where any inhabitants would freeze. Blame Mercury. Astronomers have long known that the innermost planet’s orbit, which is fairly oval-shaped, can become even more elliptical due to gravitational jiggles from Jupiter.