Nancy Shute is editor in chief of Science News Media Group. Previously, she was an editor at NPR and US News & World Report, and a contributor to National Geographic and Scientific American. She is a past president of the National Association of Science Writers.
November 21, 2025 3 min read Illegal Wildlife Trade Tied to Drugs, Arms, and Human Trafficking Criminals around the world are increasingly mixing trade in illegal animal parts with trafficking of arms, humans, and more—even exchanging wildlife for drugs By Rachel Nuwer edited by Andrea Thompson A view of elephant tusks after being seized from…
“Wearing the unsmart glasses created an entirely un-augmented reality…” Ekaterina Goncharova/Getty Images By the mid-2020s, the world was becoming swamped with “AI slop”. Whether images, video, music, emails, ads, speeches or TV shows, many people’s interactions were with asinine content generated by artificial intelligence. Sometimes the experience was fun and relatively harmless, but often it…
You are participating in a holiday gift exchange with a few classmates. You each write down your own name on a slip of paper and fold it up. Then all the students place their names into a single hat. Next, students pull a random name from the hat, one at a time. If at any…
November 21, 2025 2 min read CDC to End Monkey Research Program The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s decision to end its monkey research program will affect studies involving some 200 macaques, and the fate of the animals is unclear By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanna Bryner Goddard_Photography/Getty Images The U.S. Centers for Disease…
Dean Patman’s found-object sculpture of a red underwing moth Dean Patman Penny SarchetManaging editor, London I’ve long wanted to attend the Society of Wildlife Artists’ annual Natural Eye exhibition, and a few weeks ago, I finally did. The art showcase ran at the Mall Galleries in London in October, and it is available to browse…
This time of year, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is a nearly inescapable earworm. Rudolph, the old song goes, is bullied for having a nose so bright it glows (like a lightbulb!). But one Christmas Eve, his much-mocked nose makes Rudolph a hero. Using it as a beacon, Rudolph guides Santa’s flying sleigh through the foggy…
November 21, 2025 3 min read Hurricane Melissa’s 252-mph Gust Sets New Wind Record Hurricane Melissa raged as a Category 5 storm in the Caribbean last month—and now scientists have confirmed that its strongest gusts neared record speeds By Meghan Bartels edited by Andrea Thompson Hurricane Melissa was already one of the most powerful hurricanes…
Yonathan Cohen at Quantum Machines speaking at AQC25 conference Quantum Machines A vital ingredient for making quantum computers truly useful just might be conventional computers. That was the message from a gathering of researchers this month, which explained that classical computers are vital for controlling quantum computers, decoding the results of their calculations and even…
About 66 million years ago, an asteroid slammed into Earth and the planet suddenly went dark. The impact and its aftermath were catastrophic. Tsunamis inundated coastlines, earthquakes rattled the ground, acid rain poured from the skies and wildfires scorched the terrain. Roughly 75 percent of species, including all nonavian dinosaurs, went extinct. That day…
