Lost genes may help explain how vampire bats survive on blood alone
Surviving on blood alone is no picnic. But a handful of genetic tweaks may have helped vampire bats evolve to become the only mammal...
SCIENTIFIC NEWS
50 years ago, scientists thought a desert shrub might help save endangered whales
Shrub may save the sperm whale – Science News, March 25, 1972 The sperm whale is an endangered species. A major reason is that...
How I’ll decide when it’s time to ditch my mask
For weeks, I have been watching coronavirus cases drop across the United States. At the same time, cases were heading skyward in many places...
Here’s how boa constrictors squeeze their dinner without suffocating themselves
The boa constrictor’s choke hold is an iconic animal attack. By coiling around its prey, a snake can squeeze the life out of a...
Forests help reduce global warming in more ways than one
When it comes to cooling the planet, forests have more than one trick up their trees. Tropical forests help cool the average global...
Some past Science News coverage was racist and sexist. We’re deeply sorry
Content warning: This essay about aspects of Science News’ coverage cites specific examples of racism, sexism and prejudice against members of the LGBTQ community...
We’re celebrating a century of Science News
The first three months of covering the COVID-19 pandemic felt, by Tina Hesman Saey’s estimation, “closer to 300 years.” From February to April 2020,...
How Science News has been a training ground for young science journalists
When I was hired as a summer intern at Science News in 2017, I was equal parts excited and anxious. I’d heard the job...
Spinosaurus’ dense bones fuel debate over whether some dinosaurs could swim
A fierce group of predatory dinosaurs may have done much of their hunting in the water. An analysis of the bone density of several...
Here’s the best timeline yet for the Milky Way’s big events
A new analysis of nearly a quarter million stars puts firm ages on the most momentous pages from our galaxy’s life story. Far grander...
WHO chief voices concern over Trump Administration’s executive order on vaccines 
Cholera spreads across borders in West and Central Africa 
Sudan: Attacks and further displacement in Blue Nile and North Kordofan 
Migrant deaths climb sharply in 2026, new UN data shows