A genetic analysis hints at why COVID-19 can mess with smell
For many people, one of the fastest tip-offs that they have COVID-19 is the loss of taste or smell. Now researchers have pinpointed some...
SCIENTIFIC NEWS
Part donkey, part wild ass, the kunga is the oldest known hybrid bred by humans
From mules to ligers, the list of human-made hybrid animals is long. And, it turns out, ancient. Meet the kunga, the earliest known hybrid...
50 years ago, NASA’s space shuttle program got the green light
The decision on the shuttle is ‘go’ — Science News, January 15, 1972 President Nixon’s announcement last week of the decision to begin development of a space...
An early outburst portends a star’s imminent death
A star’s death usually comes without warning. But an early sign of one star’s imminent demise hints at what happens before some stellar explosions....
Quantum particles can feel the influence of gravitational fields they never touch
If you’re superstitious, a black cat in your path is bad luck, even if you keep your distance. Likewise, in quantum physics, particles can...
Organic molecules in an ancient Mars meteorite formed via geology, not alien life
When researchers in 1996 reported they had found organic molecules nestled in an ancient Martian meteorite discovered in Antarctica, it caused quite a buzz....
The largest group of nesting fish ever found lives beneath Antarctic ice
Five hundred meters below the ice covering Antarctica’s Weddell Sea sits the world’s largest known colony of breeding fish, a new study finds. An...
Astronomers identified a second possible exomoon
Some of the same researchers who found the first purported exomoon now say that they’ve found another. Dubbed Kepler 1708 b i, the satellite...
Homo sapiens bones in East Africa are at least 36,000 years older than once thought
Fossils from the oldest known Homo sapiens individual in East Africa are more ancient than previously thought. A partial H. sapiens skull and associated...
A century of quantum mechanics questions the fundamental nature of reality
Scientists are like prospectors, excavating the natural world seeking gems of knowledge about physical reality. And in the century just past, scientists have dug...
Newborn screening for cancer risk could save lives. Should it be done? 
World marks second warmest July on record 
Ebola deaths top 2,000 as scientists race to develop vaccine 
South Sudan: UN mission decries deadly attacks, works to calm tensions after ‘nothing but devastation’