Science

Our favorite science news stories of 2021 (non–COVID-19 edition) | Science

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If you’re a fan of weird animals and exotic concepts, we’ve got a top 10 list for you. From wombats that poop cubes to hypothetical power plants fueled by black holes, our annual end-of-the-year list includes staff favorites and some of our most popular stories of the year. You won’t find any COVID-19 news here … Read more

News at a glance: A bold antitobacco plan, updated Arctic warming rates, and a COVID-19 infection from a lab | Science

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RESEARCH FACILITIES Tornado razes agricultural center A hub of agricultural research in the small city of Princeton, Kentucky, was among the many places left in ruins last week as a series of tornadoes ripped through the region, killing dozens. No employees of the University of Kentucky’s Research and Education Center were killed, and just one … Read more

Missed shots: Science revisits its 2020 Breakthrough of the Year | Science

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When Science crowned the development of effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccines the scientific Breakthrough of the Year in December 2020, it was a moment of celebration. “This breakthrough is a triumph for all of science,” Editor-in-Chief Holden Thorp wrote in an editorial. “There will be plenty of time for an exegesis of what went wrong. But for … Read more

Forget dogs: These rats could be the future of search and rescue | Science

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Think search and rescue animal, and you’re likely to picture a dog in an orange vest. But a Tanzanian nonprofit wants you to imagine something else: the African giant pouched rat. Donna Kean and her colleagues at APOPO, a nonprofit that trains pouched rats to save lives, have spent the past 2 decades working with … Read more

‘False’ tree rings could provide a new record of long-ago hurricanes | Science

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A tree’s annual growth rings reveal how it has flourished—or floundered—over time, with the size of the rings indicating years of health or hardship. But sometimes nature throws a wrench into the works, and a tree will form more than one growth ring in a year. Now, such “false rings,” found in trees along the … Read more

China’s Shenzhou 13 astronauts stream live science lecture from space station

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China broadcast a live classroom from its new space station on Dec. 9, in an effort to both inspire students and present a friendly image of the country’s space ambitions. The three Shenzhou 13 astronauts aboard the orbiting Tianhe module connected with 1,420 students on Earth in five classrooms across China in Beijing, Guangxi Zhuang … Read more

Pluto’s bizarre polygons now have a science explanation

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A composite image of Pluto created using data from NASA’s New Horizons mission. (Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) Pluto is geologically alive. Bizarre geometric shapes first spotted on the dwarf planet’s surface in 2015 are indications that a process called sublimation is ongoing, a new study suggests. A fresh model … Read more

India defuses its population bomb: Fertility falls to two children per woman | Science

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Back in the 1960s, India faced an exploding population, with a fertility rate of nearly six children per woman. When famine struck, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson initially refused to deliver food aid, citing the country’s high birth rate. In response, India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi dramatically expanded the first national family planning program in … Read more

To draw down carbon and cool off the planet, ocean fertilization gets another look | Science

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In January 2009, a German research ship set out for the Southern Ocean carrying 6 tons of iron and a boatload of controversy. The iron was meant to trigger a massive phytoplankton bloom that would suck carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air, but environmentalists objected, viewing the trial as a reckless form of geoengineering. The … Read more