Technology

From mpox to bird flu and beyond, multiple infectious disease outbreaks flared up around the world this year. Dengue cases soared It was a record year for dengue fever, a disease transmitted by mosquitoes. The Americas have…

If you’re a female moth, finding the best plant to host your young may be as simple as taking a close listen.  When low on water, some plants make high-pitched clicking noises, inaudible to humans. Female moths, using their…

Studies suggest that semaglutide reduces heart attack and stroke and may curb addiction and more. Scientists reflect on the future of GLP-1 drugs beyond weight loss.

Twenty years ago, the seafloor west of Indonesia abruptly pushed upward as a deep undersea fault, where two of Earth’s tectonic plates meet, slipped. The upward shove violently shifted the seawater above, transferring deadly…

More and more, people giving birth can’t count on their closest hospital having the specialized health care they need. Researchers tallied losses and gains of labor and delivery units at close to 5,000 U.S. hospitals from 2010…

The world has made progress toward eliminating malaria, with 44 countries and one territory (La Réunion) certified as malaria-free. Egypt, where malaria has existed since at least the time of the pharaohs, joined the malaria-free…

Books contemplating the human experience and some of humankind’s greatest challenges were among the Science News staff’s favorite reads this year. What were your favorites? Let us know at feedback@sciencenews.org. Leigh…

Certain immune cells backstab their cellular coworkers during allergic reactions. Mast cells, the security patrols of the immune system, can trigger allergic inflammation when they run into unfamiliar proteins (SN: 9/5/07).…

An ancient ritual compound has come to light in the deepest, darkest part of a cave located in what’s now northern Israel. Homo sapiens groups assembled at the cave to hold torchlit ceremonies, probably inspired by mythological…

It might seem like magic. Type a request into ChatGPT, click a button and — presto! — here’s a five-paragraph analysis of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and, as an added bonus, it’s written in iambic pentameter. Or tell DALL-E about the…

If you’re one of the many adults who hate needles, you may be in luck. Scientists have taken inspiration from squids’ high pressure liquid jets and developed a needle-free device to inject drugs into organs deep within the body.…

2024 is officially on track to be the hottest year in history, surpassing even last year’s record-breaking temperatures. Data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service shows that global temperatures from January to…

BOSTON — For the first time, astronomers have detected an astrosphere around a star like the sun. This bubble of hot gas is blown by a star’s stellar wind, a constant stream of charged particles every star emits. The sun’s…

Sky watchers should mark their calendars as Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar system, is at its brightest for the year on Saturday, December 7, providing a celestial enigma. According to NASA, this astronomical event will rise in…

Following a public outcry, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield announced December 5 it had walked back plans that would have put time limits on health insurance payments for anesthesia care in certain states. But the brief brouhaha…

Notre Dame is back. And so are its acoustics. The Paris cathedral, which burned dramatically in a fire in 2019, is reopening to the public on December 8. In the aftermath of the fire, acoustics researcher Brian Katz has been…

From monitoring Mercury to launching a new adventure to an icy moon of Jupiter, spacecraft and astronauts made great strides in 2024. Here are some of the highlights of this year in space. New lunar visitors The moon has…

Data continue to show that tirzepatide, called Mounjaro for type 2 diabetes and Zepbound for weight loss, is safe and effective, but side effects remain.

Pablo Guerrero has been visiting cacti in the Atacama Desert his whole life, first on family trips to the Chilean coast and later as a researcher studying the impacts of climate change and illegal poaching on the fragile flora.…

NASA chief Bill Nelson announced on Thursday new delays in the U.S. space agency's Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972, pushing back the next two planned missions including the planned lunar…

Over and over, the numbers tell the same story: 2024 was Earth’s hottest year on record, knocking the previous record holder — 2023 — out of the top spot (SN: 12/6/23). But temperatures alone can’t describe the human cost:…

Courtship dazzle in spiders can lose some zing in uncertain climates. Males in places with hard-to-predict rain and temperatures devolve into suitors who woo mostly with cheap, useless gifts. Researchers have described gift…

A pair of spacecraft just launched to create hundreds of artificial solar eclipses in orbit. The European Space Agency mission, called Proba-3, will allow scientists “to see an eclipse on demand,” as one satellite blocks the…

Three satellites from Curtin University’s Binar Space Program—Binar-2, 3, and 4—burned up in Earth’s atmosphere just two months after their launch. The incident, which occurred in early November, underscores the increasing impact of solar…

Ancient North Americans are looking more and more like experienced mammoth killers. Archaeologists have long debated whether the Clovis people, who lived around 13,000 years ago, had the know-how and technology to regularly…

Camera collar footage is unveiling the secret lives of Andean bears (Tremarctos ornatus), South America’s only surviving ursid. A wild Andean bear in Peru was caught eating soil or clay, courting females and even cannibalizing a…

More than one-third of the world’s tree species, from tropical magnolias to mountainous pines, are at risk of extinction. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature issued this stark update to its Red List of…

Insects rank high among humankind’s go-to creatures for strangeness: Think movie monster inspirations or extreme biophysics (SN: 11/7/22). So of course scientists have already started testing insect willingness and ability to eat,…

The world record for the thinnest pasta has been shattered, though the new, narrow noodles are better suited to wound dressings than the dinner table. From white flour, researchers made starch-rich nanofibers that are about 370…

Some wolves have a taste for dessert. In the highlands of Ethiopia, carnivorous Ethiopian wolves (Canis simensis) dine almost exclusively on rodents. But the predators also have a sweet tooth, sometimes slurping nectar from…