Researchers used fiber-optic cables to track the movement of rainwater through soil. Here's what they found. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/soil-tilling-flood-drought-resilience

Entanglement, a quantum connection between two particles, is the basis for a variety of security techniques, including verifying someone’s location. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/quantum-physics-location-security

Black holes about the size of a hydrogen atom could be careening through the solar system unnoticed. But their days of stealth may be numbered.

Sea silk, which once clothed emperors and popes alike, is spun from the beardlike tufts of giant clams.

Microbes first found around hydrothermal vents offer clues to how all complex life may have emerged on Earth – and maybe beyond.

Sharks in the Bahamas are turning up with caffeine, painkillers — and even cocaine — in their blood. A new study suggests human pollution reaches even waters that seem remote and pristine.

Coastal plants can grow in a mix of glass sand and sediment, a boon for restoration and recycling.

When it comes to making a Snowball Earth, geology is slow, but science fiction prefers to move quickly.

Some tree-climbing snakes can lift up to 70 percent of their bodies into the air as they go vertically from a lower to a higher perch. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/how-snakes-defy-gravity-to-stand-tall

As souped-up chatbots called AI agents become commonplace in fields like finance or science, they must be able to work well together. Experiments so far have found quite a few flaws. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ai-agent-teams-fail-succeed-bots-chaos

PicII-503 is the first unambiguous second-generation star found in an ultrafaint dwarf galaxy, providing a window into how these stars formed during the initial chemical enrichment of the universe. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/primitive-star-galaxy-early-universe

Teamwork helped make this sperm whale birth a success. And scientists caught it on camera. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/first-video-sperm-whale-birth

A hidden feature of water, long submerged, has finally been brought to the surface. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/water-critical-point-supercooled-liquid

Modern apes may have swung into existence in North Africa or the Middle East. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/early-apes-not-evolved-east-africa

A lot of factors are hurting teens’ mental health. Social media is one of the few that has an easy fix, a pediatrician says. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/social-media-addictive-meta-youtube

Science News spoke with guideline writing committee chair Roger Blumenthal to learn more about the new cholesterol recommendations and how the shifts might impact treatment. buff.ly/xZiGwzS

A Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube negligent in a landmark social media addiction trial. Screen addiction, not just the amount of screen time, can predict mental health problems in teens — but screens are everywhere. buff.ly/dKKqmAV

The first measurements from a private spacecraft on the moon may reopen an old debate about why the moon’s Earth-facing side looks the way it does. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/moon-blue-ghost-lander-lunar-volcanism

NASA is hitting the accelerator on space missions and moon trips in the hopes of achieving some big firsts — a permanent moon base and an interplanetary spacecraft harnessing nuclear propulsion. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/nasa-moon-base-nuclear-propulsion-spacecraft

Dogs in Europe had been domesticated from wild wolves by at least 14,200 years ago, two new genetic studies suggest. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/oldest-dog-dna-domestication

Clumps of mouse brain cells about the size of peppercorns can gain the knowhow to perform a virtual circus trick. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/brain-cells-organoids-video-game-doom

On March 24, researchers transported antiprotons, the negatively charged counterparts of protons, inside a magnetic trap on a truck. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/antimatter-traveled-truck-delivery-cern

Phantom crane flies float lazily on breezes, their six long legs splayed and wings held utterly still. Wind tunnel experiments are beginning to reveal how they stay aloft. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/phantom-crane-fly-legs-physics

An ancient process that Neandertals may have used to turn birch bark into a tar created a substance that easily stuck to skin. Re-creations of that substance show it had antibacterial properties. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/neandertals-antibacterial-birch-tar

These female mantises hit harder than males — but only after they grow up. New research tracked their hunting strikes from youth to adulthood. Why the sudden power gap? https://www.sciencenews.org/article/female-mantises-strike-harder-strike

A once-in-a-century crater formed on the moon right under our noses. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/moon-new-crater-nasa-orbiter

A newly formulated nail polish could one day let people activate touchscreens with their fingernails. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/touchscreen-experimental-nail-polish

More than 10 percent of U.S. adults take GLP-1 drugs. But not all of them are taking full doses.

Spring into the season with our latest math puzzle about gardening!

Chile’s Monte Verde site may be thousands of years younger than previously thought, data suggest.

The nests of honeybees consist of mostly hexagonal cells made from wax, but pairs of five-and seven-sided cells help fit together hexagons of different sizes. buff.ly/ze7kpxU

Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterial species responsible for staph infections, latches onto human skin with one of the strongest biological bonds ever recorded.

Pablo Guerrero has been visiting cacti in the Atacama Desert his whole life, first on family trips and later as a researcher studying the impacts of climate change and illegal poaching on the fragile flora.

Ryan Gosling is on a mission to save the sun — and Earth — from star-killing microbes. Science News dissects the science behind the sci-fi movie. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/the-science-of-project-hail-mary

A judge has blocked the Trump administration’s vaccine policy decisions but distrust remains. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/vaccine-policy-pediatric-advice-trump

From funky smells to crafty colors, orchids have some weird ways of attracting pollinators. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/orchids-trick-pollinators-reproduce

Mosquitoes don’t just stop biting when they’re full — their butts help flip the switch. New research reveals gut cells that signal “no more blood.” https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mosquitoes-butts-full-stop-biting

The arid hills of Western Australia’s Pilbara region contain the earliest evidence yet of tectonic plates sliding across Earth’s surface. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/earth-tectonic-plates-earliest-evidence

Microbes, like all life on Earth, are facing a warming climate. Their communities are changing, but what that means and how that might impact our atmosphere is unclear. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/climate-change-disrupts-microbes-soil

Touch can be electrifying — literally. Scientists just identified an important factor in how electric charge is exchanged when two objects touch. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/static-electricity-mystery-to-surface

Platypuses just got even weirder. Their fur has hollow pigment structures—something scientists had only ever seen in bird feathers. www.sciencenews.org/article/plat...

Skyscrapers don’t just reshape a city’s skyline; they may also shape the sky itself. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/city-skylines-cloud-formation

Surgeon Joshua Mezrich's new book, Every Living Creature, chronicles the history of xenotransplantation, the practice of moving organs or tissues from one species into the body of another. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/every-living-creature-organ-transplant

Using global heat, humidity and demographic data, scientists found that sweltry conditions now limit light physical activity for adults ages 18 to 40 for about 50 hours a year, on average. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/extreme-heat-outdoor-activity-unsafe

Smartwatch data may soon flag diabetes risk. Researchers trained AI on millions of hours of wearable signals and routine health metrics to detect insulin resistance with about 88 percent accuracy. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/smartwatch-data-early-diabetes-risk

No primates, aside from humans, are native to the United States. But for nearly 80 years, a small population of African vervet monkeys has lived in and around Dania Beach, Fla. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/wild-monkeys-florida-invasive-species

Researchers have discovered that levels of certain RNA molecules in the blood may serve as aging biomarkers and predict survival, though the results need to be confirmed. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/blood-biomarker-predict-longevity-life

Thinking in black and white usually leads people astray. When it comes to climate change, that way of thinking can help. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/climate-change-binary-frozen-weather

Animals that live at high altitudes have a genetic mutation that may suggest new ways to treat brain diseases like multiple sclerosis. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/yaks-brain-diseases-ms-genetic-mutation

What makes the difference between a doting dad and a deadbeat one? Princeton researchers find it comes down to a molecular switch in the brain — at least in African striped mice. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/african-striped-mice-male-caregiving