How a virus turns caterpillars into zombies doomed to climb to their deaths
Higher and higher still, the cotton bollworm moth caterpillar climbs, its tiny body ceaselessly scaling leaf after leaf. Reaching the top of a plant,...
SCIENTIFIC NEWS
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...
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...
People Who Choose to End Their Lives 
A quantum computing feat brings the ‘megaquops’ era a step closer 
AI can give you your voice back 
As El Niño Returns, East Africa’s Urban Poor Brace for Heavy Rains