Technology

A colossal census of the cosmos has more than tripled the number of active black holes known to reside in miniature galaxies and found the biggest haul of middleweight black holes to date. The survey turned up about 2,500 dwarf…

Astronaut Sunita Williams along with her fellow astronaut Butch Willmore have been at the International Space Station (ISS) since June 2024. The pair had launched aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 5 for its first crewed flight,…

In the ocean’s abyss, deep-diving whales use echolocation to hunt in pitch dark. Emitting sounds that bounce off objects gives the whales a clear picture of their surroundings. But such a superpower might come with a downside,…

Stand back, ordinary ocean-dwelling, oxygen-spewing organisms: There’s a new green, hulkish mutant in town. And hefty UTEX 3222 — dubbed “Chonkus” by the researchers who found it — may have just the right combination of…

Tens of millions of bees are likely being killed each day by vehicles — and that’s just in the western United States, a new study finds. The paper, published online November 7 in Sustainable Environment, is the first to…

Some massive stars may go out with a fizzle, not a bang. A star that winked out of view could be a “failed supernova,” a stellar explosion that petered out instead of fully detonating, a new study reports. If real, the failed…

Rare depictions of Stone Age net fishing have surfaced on engraved stones thanks to an imaging technique that gives magnification a digital boost. Previously unnoticed lines etched into eight stones found at Gönnersdorf, a…

Michel Brahic’s new book spotlights prions’ role in diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

A massive Maya landscape has been hiding under a forested area of southern Mexico. The newfound city, dubbed Valeriana, spans an area roughly the size of Beijing and has “all the hallmarks of a Classic Maya political capital,”…

Potatoes are the third-most consumed food worldwide and a delicious snack. But modern farm potatoes require large amounts of nitrogen in the form of nitrate fertilizers, which are costly and can be environmentally harmful. A…

Vampire bats have become such specialized bloodsuckers that they metabolize their food more like some blood-feeding flies than like other known mammals, a new experiment shows. The common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) doesn’t…

Airplane plumage might be the next big thing in aviation. Bird wings are contoured with overlapping rows of feathery tufts, spreading out from near the shoulder. These “covert feathers” help birds maneuver through the air.…

The notion of a midlife crisis is dead. Or maybe it was always bunk. Now some scientists want a postmortem for the theory. The idea that happiness in the Western world plummets around midlife before rebounding has been around…

If you want to have a dream where you know you’re dreaming, you might be in luck. A phone app seems to boost users’ odds of having lucid dreams. Before bed, the app has users listen to a specific sound, such as a series of…

Some 6,500 light-years from Earth lurks a zombie star cloaked in long tendrils of hot sulfur. Nobody knows how those tendrils formed. But astronomers now know where they’re going. New observations, reported in the Nov. 1…

Icy moves Stonehenge’s central stone, known as the Altar Stone, may have had Scottish and not Welsh origins, researchers say. The finding suggests that Late Neolithic groups had long-distance connections, Bruce Bower…

Editor in chief Nancy Shute discusses efforts of Indigenous people in British Columbia to preserve ancient trails.

At least one pig has picked up bird flu amid an outbreak in poultry on a backyard farm in central Oregon. While the infection appears limited to one farm so far, the discovery has raised new alarm bells thanks to pigs’ role as…

A well-timed smile could be the ultimate speed-dating hack. Smiles enhanced by artificial intelligence during video chats led to higher romantic attraction, researchers report October 28 in Proceedings of the National Academy of…

Jupiter’s new moon — Science News, November 2, 1974 Jupiter’s tentatively identified 13th moon, discovered in September by California Institute of Technology astronomer Charles Kowal, now appears almost certain to be the…

The first-ever sighting of starlight from a galaxy hosting one of the most distant quasars known has revealed an astronomical oddity. Quasars — blazingly bright galactic cores — owe their brilliance to the intense heat that…

One enzyme has a key role in determining whether parrots’ rainbow plumage emerges in vibrant reds, yellows or greens, a new study shows. Parrot feathers flaunt an array of colors, with yellow, red and orange hues made possible…

The occasional sweet treat likely won’t ruin your health. But too much added sugar at a young age could increase the risk of health complications later in life. Limiting added sugars during the first 1,000 days after conception…

New finds in the Finding Fluorescence site include a Japanese beetle with a glowing blue mouth and a mushroom that gleamed bright red under its cap.

Pooping whales changed the course of Asha de Vos’ career. The Sri Lankan marine biologist was aboard a research vessel near her home island in 2003 when she spotted six blue whales congregating. A bright red plume of whale…

Tadpoles have been wriggling in the world’s ponds for at least 161 million years. A newly detailed fossil finding pushes the record for earliest known tadpoles back an additional 30 million years, researchers report October 30…

Paleontologist David Hone’s latest book fleshes out our understanding of dinosaur behavior.

Historians working with an artificial intelligence assistant have begun tracking the spread of astronomical thinking across Europe in the early 1500s. The analysis contributes to challenging the “lone genius” idea of scientific…

Don’t get into a drinking contest with Vespa orientalis hornets. They could out-booze a tree shrew, even a fruit fly. Mere humans wouldn’t stand a chance. These hornets can survive weeks of binging on sugared liquid that’s 80…

A new kind of border patrol agent could soon start work in African ports, sniffing out illegal goods that are smuggled across country lines. They’re rats. And they wear tiny red vests. African giant pouched rats have been…