Flavor isn’t just on your tongue—it’s in your brain. Scans show that a part deep in the brain fuses taste and smell into flavor. https://www.snexplores.org/article/brain-combine-taste-smell-flavor

Books and movies often portray asteroid run-ins as unstoppable events. But “this is the one natural disaster we can totally prevent.” https://www.snexplores.org/article/what-chances-asteroid-hits-earth

In Life (Re)Sounding, game designer Susannah Emery draws from her own experiences as a neurodivergent person. https://www.snexplores.org/article/game-designer-neurodivergent-gaming

Polar bears provide 7.6 million kilograms of food to Arctic’s wildlife. https://www.snexplores.org/article/polar-bears-food-scraps-arctic

Last year, four-fifths of all warm-water corals bleached severely due to relentless heat waves in Earth’s seas. These corals have reached a point of no return, scientists now report. https://www.snexplores.org/article/coral-deaths-first-climate-tipping-point

Flamingoes create underwater whirlpools to fill their almost bottomless stomachs. https://www.snexplores.org/article/flamingos-make-whirlpools-suck-in-prey

Real animals glow red to see in dark and murky places, just like Rudolph. https://www.snexplores.org/article/rudolph-red-nose-glow-bioluminescence

A new type of parachute is full of holes — by design. It could allow precise, inexpensive cargo delivery or aid drops. https://www.snexplores.org/article/kirigami-parachute-design-physics

Such technology may one day treat infertility for women who no longer have eggs because of age, early menopause or previous cancer treatments. https://www.snexplores.org/article/human-eggs-from-skin-cells

A first-time contestant of the Nikon Small World photomicrography contest won this year’s competition with a close-up shot of a rice weevil. https://www.snexplores.org/article/award-winning-nikon-science-photos-2025

From furious firestorms to gently burning swirls, this recently discovered flame may clean oil spills and more. This week’s word is blue whirl. https://www.snexplores.org/article/scientists-say-blue-whirl-definition-pronunciation

Don't try this at home. Researchers turned milk into traditional yogurts with help from ants. For science. https://www.snexplores.org/article/ants-bacteria-yogurt-ingredient

A tiny elephant establishes a new stomping ground for 3-D printing: inside living cells. https://www.snexplores.org/article/3-d-printing-inside-living-cells

Cosmic forecast: Cloudy with a chance of galactic fountains! https://www.snexplores.org/article/high-velocity-clouds-milky-way-galaxy

To “hear,” this microphone uses light. That means it works even through soundproof glass. https://www.snexplores.org/article/visual-microphone-sees-sounds

Strong memories capture weak memories that we’d otherwise forget. https://www.snexplores.org/article/emotion-memory-help-remember-moments

Kleptotrichy: When plucky little birds raid a mammal’s backside for fur to line their nests. https://www.snexplores.org/article/scientists-say-kleptotrichy-definition-pronunciation

Can dogs sort toys based on how they play with them? Yes, researchers say, some do. https://www.snexplores.org/article/gifted-dogs-learn-sort-fetch-toys

Researchers turned to a citizen science project to better understand how light pollution affects singing time in birds. https://www.snexplores.org/article/birds-singing-longer-light-pollution

ChatGPT “is designed less to help you than it is to keep you engaged,” says Amanda Guinzburg. Read about her eerie experience with the bot, and how to avoid common AI pitfalls. https://www.snexplores.org/article/5-things-talking-with-chatbot

Are plants intelligent? averyhurt.bsky.social explores this question in a Science News Explores story that won a Gold Award in the 2025 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards. https://www.snexplores.org/article/plants-intelligent-communicate-learn

A simple shape-up anchors these pimple patches in place. And the change might launch new lines of shot-free options for injectable drugs. https://www.snexplores.org/article/a-little-shape-up-helps-these-pimple-patches-get-a-grip

People use glue guns to fix lots of things. Now researchers have modified one to help fix broken bones. https://www.snexplores.org/article/glue-gun-heal-broken-bones

When a perigee and full moon collide, this bold, beautiful lunar event can rise. This week’s word is supermoon. https://www.snexplores.org/article/scientists-say-supermoon-definition-pronunciation

Colors spark similar brain responses across people. https://www.snexplores.org/article/brain-activity-see-color-red

Like bells, black holes should ring with a fundamental pitch and other “overtone” frequencies. Scientists have for the first time clearly detected both pitch types coming from a black hole. https://www.snexplores.org/article/black-hole-ringing-gravitational-waves

Experiments conducted over multiple generations of scientists unveil secrets no single researcher could discover alone. https://www.snexplores.org/article/long-term-experiments-outlive-scientists

These materials could filter PFAS out of drinking water, get scrubbed clean and then reused. https://www.snexplores.org/article/mof-filter-pfas-forever-chemicals-water

By simply getting rid of our poop and pee, we may be flushing money away — literally. https://www.snexplores.org/article/lets-learn-about-surprising-uses-for-human-waste

From goat bleats to fungal chemical signals, this linguist draws from many sources of inspiration to make new languages. https://www.snexplores.org/article/linguist-invented-contructed-languages

Southeast Asians mummified their ancestors long before the Egyptians. https://www.snexplores.org/article/oldest-mummies-smoke-dried-asia

🕷️🧟🍬 Happy Halloween! 🎃🌕🐺 Come visit our homepage (https://www.snexplores.org/) for our annual spooky science story takeover. We'll be back to normal on Monday. #SpookyScience #Spooktober #SpookySeason #Halloween

Migrating en masse in the dark of night protects songbirds from most predators — but not bats. https://www.snexplores.org/article/bats-midflight-bird-feast

Yeast and bacteria give fine chocolate notes of fruit, flowers, citrus, berry and caramel. https://www.snexplores.org/article/chocolate-flavor-bacteria-yeast #NationalChocolateDay

What started as a fun side project turned into a surprising discovery. https://www.snexplores.org/article/grooved-surface-ice-sliding

Most of the vitamins we need come from the foods we eat. But our bodies also play a role in making these essential nutrients. https://www.snexplores.org/article/what-are-vitamins

Are parrotfish a superhero for struggling reefs? Sometimes, but not always. It depends on other reef stressors. And there are a lot of stressors. https://www.snexplores.org/article/parrotfish-algae-coral-reef-ecosystems

Some tattoos age well. More than two millennia ago, a woman in Siberia rocked some sick sleeves. https://www.snexplores.org/article/ancient-tattoos-siberian-ice-mummy

Two pterosaur hatchlings point to how hundreds of their kind may have met an untimely end — a cold-case more than 100 million years old. https://www.snexplores.org/article/baby-pterosaurs-died-jurassic-storms

If you want to walk on water, it helps to have fancy feet. https://www.snexplores.org/article/ripple-bug-robot-feet-walk-on-water

Rideable horses would have been a game changer for human societies. It changed the face of both transportation and war. https://www.snexplores.org/article/horses-ride-tame-genes-breeding

Pulling too much water out of the ground can worsen surface flooding. Some cities are fighting back. https://www.snexplores.org/article/cities-sinking-floods-groundwater

Bullying hurts kids when it happens — and afterward as well. New research suggests how stronger connections at school can help. https://www.snexplores.org/article/school-bullying-teen-mental-health

Big plant-eating dinos would seem to have their choice of dinner options. But a new study suggests some preferred eating rough stuff. https://www.snexplores.org/article/fossil-teeth-calcium-dinos-fussy-eaters

Feeling anxious? A short bout of high-intensity interval exercise can calm your brain. https://www.snexplores.org/article/classroom-exercise-workouts-boost-brain

Imagine something with the mass of a sugar cube but the surface area of a soccer field. That’s the family of structures behind the 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry. https://www.snexplores.org/article/mof-metal-organic-chemistry-nobel

Flossing a mouse? It’s a two-person job. https://www.snexplores.org/article/floss-flu-vaccine-mice-needle-free

To answer some big cosmic questions, “you need something like [Vera] Rubin. There is no competition.” https://www.snexplores.org/article/vera-rubin-observatory-telescope

Turns out, tiny gaps can be powerful. New research explains why bristled wings work so well for the tiniest of flying beetles. https://www.snexplores.org/article/tiny-insects-fly-comb-wings

Three physicists showed data confounding scientific wisdom: that quantum effects only show up in tiny objects. Think single atoms. For their contradictory findings, this trio earned the 2025 physics Nobel. https://www.snexplores.org/article/quantum-computers-circuits-physics-nobel