The fastest-spinning white dwarf ever seen rotates once every 25 seconds
The sun turns once a month and the Earth once a day, but a white dwarf star 2,000 light-years away spins every 25 seconds,...
SCIENTIFIC NEWS
Methods of getting results from real-world experiments win 2021 economics Nobel
Some of the most insightful — and now most celebrated — studies of such major social issues as minimum wages and immigration have seized...
The earliest evidence of tobacco use dates to over 12,000 years ago
Ancient North Americans started using tobacco around 12,500 to 12,000 years ago, roughly 9,000 years before the oldest indications that they smoked the plant...
Dog DNA reveals ancient trade network connecting the Arctic to the outside world
Ancient Arctic communities traded with the outside world as early as 7,000 years ago, DNA from the remains of Siberian dogs suggests. Analysis...
How catching birds bare-handed may hint at Neandertals’ hunting tactics
Juan Negro crouched in the shadows just outside a cave, wearing his headlamp. For a brief moment, he wasn’t an ornithologist at the Spanish...
China’s lunar rock samples show lava flowed on the moon 2 billion years ago
Lava oozed across the moon’s surface just 2 billion years ago, bits of lunar rocks retrieved by China’s Chang’e-5 mission reveal. A chemical analysis...
How our SN 10 scientists have responded to tumultuous times
Each year since 2015, Science News has featured the work of outstanding early- and mid-career scientists in our SN 10: Scientists to Watch list....
Giant ground sloths may have been meat-eating scavengers
Modern sloths may be dedicated vegetarians, but at least one of their massive Ice Age cousins chowed down on meat when it had the...
An easier, greener way to build molecules wins the chemistry Nobel Prize
Making molecules is hard work. Atoms must be stitched together into specific arrangements through a series of chemical reactions that are often slow, convoluted...
When James Webb launches, it will have a bigger to-do list than 1980s researchers suspected
The James Webb Space Telescope has been a long time coming. When it launches later this year, the observatory will be the largest and...
One day behind bars: Students and incarcerated women break prison stigma in Thailand 
Sudan: Driver killed in aerial attack on aid trucks in South Kordofan 
UN upholds housing as a human right on World Habitat Day 
Sweden’s Far Right Falters