Pure Science News: All the science news you can handle in a single feed

Readers discuss the biology of sex, plastic in the brain and more

It’s a matter of size A January executive order by President Donald Trump designates people as female if they make the “large” reproductive cell (the egg) and male if they make the “small” one (the sperm). But the human sexes don’t fit...

May 24, 2025

Pure Science

All the science news you can handle in a single feed

How to get the biggest splash at the pool using science

FDA cuts imperil food safety, but not how you might think

A possible new dwarf planet skirts the solar system’s edge

A cup of chickpeas a day lowers cholesterol

A private Japanese spacecraft failed on its way to the moon’s surface

Preemptively cutting rhinos’ horns cuts poaching

Precolonial farmers thrived in one of North America’s coldest places

A diet full of tiny plastics triggered health problems in mice

Probiotics helped great star corals fend off a deadly disease

Small earthquakes can have a big impact on the movements of major faults

Flamingos create precise water vortices in a shrimp-hunting frenzy

Trees ‘remember’ times of water abundance and scarcity

Aussie cockatoos use their beaks and claws to turn on water fountains

Muons’ magnetism matches theory, easing an enduring physics conundrum

U.S. moms say their mental health is getting worse

A dwarf galaxy just might upend the Milky Way’s predicated demise

Lotions and perfumes affect the air near our skin

How luna moths grow extravagant wings

Venus’ tectonics may be actively reshaping its surface

Males of this ancient human cousin weren’t always bigger than females

Students’ mental health imperiled by $1 billion cuts to school funding

Genetics might save the rare, elusive saola — if it’s not already extinct

A passing star could fling Earth out of orbit

Personalized gene editing saved a baby, but the tech’s future is uncertain

‘Silent’ cells play a surprising role in how brains work

Bedbugs may have been one of the first urban pests

Humans used whale bones to make tools 20,000 years ago

The first cicada concert was 47 million years ago

Readers discuss the biology of sex, plastic in the brain and more

The long and short of science

Math puzzle: The conundrum of sharing

Wet fingers always wrinkle in the same way

Sloths once came in a dizzying array of sizes. Here’s why

It’s tricky to transplant a bladder. How surgeons finally did it

Penguin poop gives Antarctic cloud formation a boost

Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ plan has a major obstacle: Physics

Don’t wait until menopause to strengthen your bones

Gamma rays flared as this lightning bolt formed

A new AI-based weather tool surpasses current forecasts

Scientists used a levitating magnet to hunt for dark matter

FDA significantly limits access to COVID-19 vaccines

Biden’s prostate cancer is incurable, but it is treatable

The unsung women of quantum physics get their due

As quantum mechanics turns 100, a new revolution is under way

Juvenile capuchins are kidnapping infants of another monkey species

A ‘talking’ ape’s death signals the end of an era

Some science seems silly, but it’s still worthwhile

RSV wasn’t as hard on U.S. babies last winter. This may be why

New audio tech could let you listen privately without headphones

FDA plan to ban fluoride supplements baffles and alarms dental experts