Innocent-looking AI reasoning can make bad behavior harder to catch
Science Newsby Sascha Brodsky8 Sept 2026
Safety concerns about AI are growing, and now, a common method for catching misbehaving systems could have flaws, new research suggests.
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sciencenews.orgadded August 2026
top 51%Was the ‘American cheetah’ a cheetah at all?
Science Newsby Erin Garcia de Jesús4 Sept 2026
Tens of thousands of years ago, a long-legged cat nicknamed the “American cheetah” prowled North America.
AI agents not ready to replace humans in behavioral research
Science Newsby Sujata Gupta3 Sept 2026
Replacing human subjects with AI surrogates, or digital twins, is on some social scientists’ wish lists.
A culprit for corrosion may have been operating under our noses
Science Newsby Lily Burton3 Sept 2026
Water droplets can do their own version of the electric slide. But instead of tearing up the dance floor, they may be wearing away at our cars, infrastructure and cultural heritage sites.
New Hubble images reveal a bizarre decagon over Saturn’s south pole
Science Newsby Meghan Bartels2 Sept 2026
Scientists watching the weather on Saturn have spotted a strange polygon surrounding the planet’s south pole — a feature that would have surprised them less had it appeared years ago, when the...
A massive study unveils the genetic underpinnings of fibromyalgia
Science Newsby Meghan Rosen2 Sept 2026
The mysterious pain disorder fibromyalgia may have some surprising genetic roots. An analysis of 2.5 million people suggests fibromyalgia is neurological in nature, scientists report July 28 in...
The universe may have been building rocky planets almost from the start
Science Newsby Mara Johnson-Groh1 Sept 2026
The universe’s first rocky planets may have gotten their start astonishingly early — perhaps only 100 million years after the Big Bang.
Have scientists glimpsed the first dark matter particle?
Science Newsby Emily Conover1 Sept 2026
One day in June 2023, the numerous, unblinking electronic eyes of the LUX-ZEPLIN detector may have glimpsed something remarkable — possibly the first direct detection of the shadowy dark matter...
Why doctors still can’t predict which migraine drug will work
Science Newsby Nora Bradford31 Aug 2026
For the first time in 14 years, doctors have updated guidelines for preventing migraine attacks. The new recommendations from the American Academy of Neurology and American Headache Society...
These worms move faster when you give them less space
Science Newsby Rohini Subrahmanyam31 Aug 2026
For humans, running across an open field is usually a faster way to cross it than crawling through an underground tunnel. But things are different for tiny worms.
To nap or not to nap? Science is still waking up to the question
Science Newsby Sujata Gupta31 Aug 2026
In Muslim-majority Oman, most people wake before dawn for morning prayers. People often go back to sleep afterward or take afternoon naps, says sleep medicine researcher Mohammed Al-Abri of Sultan...
Free-falling atoms in space put a new twist on Galileo’s gravity test
Science Newsby Emily Conover28 Aug 2026
An experiment made famous by Galileo has been shrunk down to the atomic level and shipped off to space.
Your skin chemistry may affect which mosquitoes most want to bite you
Science Newsby Skyler Ware28 Aug 2026
Some people seem to get eaten alive by mosquitoes each summer, while others sail through the season with nary a bite.
NASA’s new space telescope will reveal the universe like never before
Science Newsby Meghan Bartels28 Aug 2026
NASA is ready to explore the cosmos in a whole new way, thanks to its next-generation Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
Tiny tremors can’t always warn when fracking will trigger a bigger quake
Science Newsby Carolyn Gramling27 Aug 2026
Tiny seismic rumbles can warn that human activities such as fracking are putting enough stress on underground faults to trigger a larger earthquake.
Landslides pose the largest risks to those who can least afford them
Science Newsby Rebecca Dzombak27 Aug 2026
Landslides in the United States cause billions of dollars of damage and can take dozens of lives each year.
A space telescope was falling from orbit. Its rescue mission fell apart too
Science Newsby Marina Koren27 Aug 2026
A space telescope is falling out of orbit, and a rescue mission showed up just in time—but both are doomed.
Monkeys hunt small animals when fruit is scarce
Science Newsby Jake Buehler26 Aug 2026
When the fruit runs low, some monkeys’ appetite for meat gets a boost. Bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) hunt and eat small vertebrates more often when fruits are less abundant.
Once upon a time, insects had 24 legs
Science Newsby Elie Dolgin26 Aug 2026
Insects are famous for their six-legged body plan, but that wasn’t always the rule. A 324-million-year-old fossil dug up from a shale bed in West Texas had a markedly different setup, sporting a...
Microbes might get freeze-dried on the moon’s south pole
Science Newsby Libby Riddle26 Aug 2026
Certain hardy microbes could survive on the moon. Previous lunar missions explored the moon’s equator, where high ultraviolet radiation and daily temperature swings make the surface inhospitable to...