Technology

The microbial toxin colibactin has just the right shape to snuggle up to DNA — but its embrace is unfortunately more cancerous than cozy. Colibactin is produced by bacteria in the gut and causes mutations implicated in colon…

Let the record show: In 2025, one of paleontology’s oldest debates was settled. A second study in as many months confirms — using an independent and novel analysis — that the the tiny tyrannosaur Nanotyrannus is indeed its own…

An erupting volcano may have kicked off a chain of events that led to the swift dance of the Black Plague across Europe in the 14th century, in a pandemic that killed tens of millions of people. New analyses of tree ring data,…

The highly anticipated moment for skywatchers is finally approaching as interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS prepares for its closest pass by Earth this December. The mysterious object famous for both scientific intrigue and viral conspiracy…

The interstellar exocomet 3I/ATLAS has become a global fascination as astronomers and space enthusiasts race to capture its rare passage through our cosmic neighborhood. Recent images shared online especially the remarkably clear shots by…

On August 16, 2012, residents of the tiny Dutch village of Huizinge were rattled by an inexplicably large 3.6 magnitude earthquake. Gas extraction in the nearby Groningen gas field, one of the largest onshore gas fields in the…

The house cat (Felis catus) slunk into China in the eighth century. But long before that, the ancient Chinese were by no means catless. Leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) might have been the first to wander into human…

Important, previously unrecognized genetic changes common to all ancient and modern Homo sapiens spread in Africa more than 300,000 years ago, a new study finds. After that, the same investigation concludes, human evolution…

Meghan Rosen is a senior writer who reports on the life sciences for Science News. She earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology with an emphasis in biotechnology from the University of California, Davis, and later…

“Magic-angle” graphene may provide new clues into poorly understood unconventional superconductors, which operate at higher-than-normal temperatures.

An HPV vaccine delivered into the nose can treat cervical tumors in mice. The vaccine targets a cancer protein produced by the virus.

Major surgery takes a major toll on the body — not unlike running a marathon. You wouldn’t attempt a marathon without training, so why would you undergo major surgery without preparing your body for the trauma it will experience?…

Why does a glass of wine make a holiday party feel more festive? It might be because our forebears used to party. PREMIUM A chimpanzee in Uganda eating fruit scrumped from the ground. Not the ancient Greeks, though they did name a…

Measles is making a comeback in the Americas.  The United States may soon have to return its gold medal status of measles elimination, a ranking bestowed by the World Health Organization that signals the virus is under control…

In 2009, Yohannes Haile-Selassie and his team were combing the desert landscape of Burtele, a paleontological site in the Afar Region of Ethiopia, when Stephanie Melillo found something remarkable: an ancient, humanlike foot bone.…

When the wind blows on Mars, electricity crackles through the air. For the first time, scientists have detected electricity in the Red Planet’s atmosphere. A microphone on NASA’s Perseverance rover captured the sounds and…

Belém, Brazil — The Amazon rainforest is a poster child for the perils of climate change. Deforestation and warming temperatures threaten to push the iconic forest past its limits. So Belém, in the heart of the Amazon, was a…

Gratitude is arguably as quintessential to Thanksgiving as turkey, cranberry sauce and the kumbaya story of Pilgrims and Native Americans coming together. The word “thanks” is, after all, right there in the holiday’s name. Yet if…

Small, icy moons might be boiling under their surface. Many moons in the outer solar system are thought to harbor subsurface oceans beneath their icy crusts. New computer simulations, reported November 24 in Nature Astronomy,…

The koalas clambering around eucalyptus canopies may be cuddly herbivores, but their extinct relatives were horrifying predators. The charismatic marsupials are the closest living relatives of marsupial lions — powerful…

Tiny life-forms with bright colors might point the way to big dinosaur bone discoveries. In the badlands of western Canada, two species of lichen prefer making their homes on dinosaur bones instead of on the surrounding desert…

Takanori Takebe is on a mission to find out if people can breathe through their butts. As a medical doctor and stem cell biologist, Takebe spends most of his time trying to develop lab-made livers to treat organ failure. His…

Bats beware. The ability to fly won’t save you from hungry, determined rats. In a first, brown rats were filmed hunting bats by catching them midair. The finding, published in the November Global Ecology and Conservation, puts…

In people at risk for Alzheimer’s disease, researchers linked minimal to moderate physical activity to a 3-to 7-year delay in cognitive symptoms.

Nancy Shute is editor in chief of Science News Media Group. Previously, she was an editor at NPR and US News & World Report, and a contributor to National Geographic and Scientific American. She is a past president of the…

You are participating in a holiday gift exchange with a few classmates. You each write down your own name on a slip of paper and fold it up. Then all the students place their names into a single hat. Next, students pull a…

Is your face a glazed doughnut or a dewy dumpling? I don’t mean which of these foods are stuck on your face. Instead, these are all recent skin care trends, which, despite some key differences, share a similarity beyond their…

When the United States faced the looming threat of World War II in the 1930s, it bet big on science — and won. The nation invested billions of dollars in research at universities and in industry. That influx of funds led to…

New scientific findings come out every day. Often, people only learn about the researchers behind some of these discoveries years or decades later when they win a Nobel Prize. We think you should know about them much sooner.…

About 66 million years ago, an asteroid slammed into Earth and the planet suddenly went dark. The impact and its aftermath were catastrophic. Tsunamis inundated coastlines, earthquakes rattled the ground, acid rain poured from…