Science News

A grim reality check.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

There is a reasonable chance 2024 will be the first year in which the average global surface temperature is more than 1.5°C above that of the pre-industrial period, the UK’s Met Office forecasts

A look at the science.

Can Alzheimer’s spread?

A reconstruction of 66 million years of climate history indicates global temperature may be even more sensitive to carbon dioxide levels than current models estimate

Honey-hunters from several African cultures use different sounds to communicate with honeyguides, and the birds respond to local calls more than others

The main negotiations at the COP28 climate meeting will aim to address how countries plan to fix shortcomings in their plans to reduce planet-warming emissions, as highlighted in the “Global Stocktake”

When Hurricane Larry struck Newfoundland in 2021, large amounts of microplastic fell from the sky, probably because the storm travelled over an ocean garbage patch

With a Pokémon twist.

The iridescent, blind De Winton’s golden mole was last seen in 1937 and later declared officially lost. But scientists have since rediscovered it by tracking its environmental DNA

When a baseball is tilted and spinning just right, its raised, hand-stitched seams skew the process by which its wake is created and radically shift its trajectory in the air

Banning formaldehyde hair relaxers might help protect Black women’s health, but won’t end the racism that drives their use

One safe, five sons and betrayal: this principle shows how shared knowledge can protect secrets—without having to trust anyone

Far-right extremists shifted their online hate from Muslims to Jews in 2017, and offline hate followed the same trends 

Astronomers have been searching for planets around the sun’s close neighbor for decades.

The U.S.’s largest-ever outbreak of waterborne illness—cryptosporidiosis—hit Milwaukee 30 years ago. Why are many other water systems still vulnerable to the same parasite today?

One of four newly described species of “stalked puffball” fungi from Hungary’s Pannonian steppe erupts out of the sand like the iconic Shai-Hulud

To understand how AI is contributing to climate change, look at the way it’s being used

Brain waves during sleep influence glucose and insulin, offering new insights into controlling diabetes