Luis Miramontes helped enable the sexual revolution. Why isn’t he better known?
When Mexican scientist Luis Miramontes signed his lab notebook on October 15, 1951, he didn’t know he was documenting history. That day, he made...
SCIENTIFIC NEWS
One of nature’s key constants is much larger in a quantum material
A crucial number that rules the universe goes big in a strange quantum material. The fine-structure constant is about 10 times its normal value...
Pfizer says its COVID-19 vaccine is safe and works well for kids ages 5–11
Elementary school–age children may soon be able to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German biotech company partner BioNTech reported September...
The Top 10 scientific surprises of Science News’ first 100 years
From the day Archimedes cut his bath short to shout “Eureka,” science has been a constant source of surprises. Even after the abundant accumulation...
Satellite swarms may outshine the night sky’s natural constellations
Fleets of private satellites orbiting Earth will be visible to the naked eye in the next few years, sometimes all night long. Companies like...
By taking on poliovirus, Marguerite Vogt transformed the study of all viruses
When nobody else wanted the job, Marguerite Vogt stepped in. Working from early morning until late at night in a small, isolated basement laboratory...
Stone Age people used bone scrapers to make leather and pelts
Discoveries in a Moroccan cave have provided a rare look at how Stone Age people may have turned animal skins into clothing. Bone tools,...
Fossil tracks may reveal an ancient elephant nursery
Fossilized footprints found on a beach in southern Spain betray what may have been a nursery for an extinct species of elephant. The track-rich...
Some birds learn to recognize calls while still in their eggs
Over a decade ago, behavioral ecologist Diane Colombelli-Négrel was wiring superb fairy wrens’ nests to record the birds’ sounds when she noticed something odd....
Australian fires in 2019–2020 had even more global reach than previously thought
The severe, devastating wildfires that raged across southeastern Australia in late 2019 and early 2020 packed a powerful punch that extended far beyond the...
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’