Science Magazine
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Cutting-edge research, news, commentary, and visuals from the Science family of journals. Follow @NewsfromScience for stories from our News team.
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The human brain can bring rubber to life with one simple trick: Cover a person’s hand and place a rubber hand next to it, then stroke their hand and its facsimile, and suddenly the person will begin to “feel” the touch in the fake appendage. The rubber hand illusion helps demonstrate how our senses work together to create the feeling of ownership over our bodies, a fundamental part of self-awareness. A 2025 study demonstrated that octopuses also fall for the rubber arm trick—the first documentation of the phenomenon outside of mammals: #ScienceMagArchives
Science Magazine121,652 views • 14 days ago
Homing pigeons orient themselves by the Sun’s position under sunny skies and rely on their magnetic sense when it is cloudy. Under overcast conditions, homing pigeons with their normal liver macrophages had little issue flying a 19-kilometer route for which they had been trained. When injected with clodronate liposomes that knocked out the liver macrophages, the pigeons could navigate the route without issue when it was sunny. Under overcast skies, however, homing pigeons with depleted liver macrophages struggled mightily to find their way home—suggesting the immune cells play a role in the birds’ magnetic sense. Learn more: News from Science
Science Magazine41,504 views • 5 days ago
Homing pigeons orient themselves by the Sun’s position under sunny skies and rely on their magnetic sense when it is cloudy. Under overcast conditions, homing pigeons with their normal liver macrophages had little issue flying a 19-kilometer route for which they had been trained. When injected with clodronate liposomes that knocked out the liver macrophages, the pigeons could navigate the route without issue when it was sunny. Under overcast skies, however, homing pigeons with depleted liver macrophages struggled mightily to find their way home—suggesting the immune cells play a role in the birds’ magnetic sense. Learn more: News from Science
Science Magazine69,811 views • 9 days ago
The formation of Antarctica's vast East Antarctic Ice Sheet may have been driven not only by falling atmospheric carbon dioxide but also by the slow uplift of the continent itself, according to a new study in Science. The findings highlight how interactions among tectonics, topography, climate, and ice-sheet dynamics can fundamentally shape Earth’s long-term climate evolution. Learn more:
Science Magazine81,769 views • 11 days ago
Every few minutes, a dragonfly dives into water and takes off again, turning several forward somersaults as it ascends. The purpose of the behavior? The quick dip cools the insect down, and the loop-the-loops help it dry off by flicking away the water. Learn more during #InsectWeek:
Science Magazine46,219 views • 23 days ago
Remotely tracking animals in their natural habitats has become a central pillar of wildlife research. But on land, the process often involves fitting a collar around an animal’s neck that contains a GPS tracker and various sensors. This requires capturing the animal, which isn’t just expensive—it’s also stressful and dangerous for everyone involved. But a biologist sees a better way forward for this field of study, known as wildlife telemetry. He’s now building and experimenting with devices, described in a recent preprint, that would allow researchers to apply collars on animals without needing to capture them. Rethinking how we put collars on animals, he argues, could bring many benefits to wildlife research, such as improving animal welfare and the quantity and quality of data collected at the same time. Learn more: News from Science
Science Magazine61,490 views • 1 month ago
A 2024 Science study reveals that an egg-laying species of worm-like amphibian nourishes its young with a lipid-rich, milk-like substance. The findings report previously unobserved behavior and offer new insight into the species’ parental care and communication. #ScienceMagArchives
Science Magazine364,628 views • 1 year ago
The agricultural pests known as plant bugs can be a farmer’s worst enemy. These winged insects—the size of a pea or smaller—suck the sap from apples, lettuce, and other crops, causing millions of dollars in damages globally each year. A Costa Rican flower has turned this foe into friend, however, according to a 2022 study. One species of the so-called arum plant has evolved to attract a species of plant bug instead of a typical beetle pollinator, helping them spread their pollen far and wide. Learn more during #NationalPollinatorsMonth: News from Science
Science Magazine37,951 views • 1 month ago
On the latest #SciencePodcast🎙️, ScienceInsider editor Jocelyn Kaiser breaks down the biggest science policy stories from the past month, including a proposal from President Donald Trump’s administration to increase the involvement of politicians in grantmaking. 🎧 Listen here:
Science Magazine18,369 views • 19 days ago
In 1974, paleoanthropologist Don Johanson and student Tom Gray unearthed a 40% complete skeleton of an early human ancestor, fundamentally changing the human family tree. The specimen acquired a nickname that persisted: Lucy, after the Beatles song playing at the fossil hunter’s camp—“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” At 3.2 million years old, some thought her species, Australopithecus afarensis, was close to when the ancestor of humans had split from the ancestor of chimpanzees. But in the past 50 years, discoveries of hominins both older and the same age as Lucy have pushed that split millions of years deeper in time, and challenged her position as mother of us all. Learn more: #ScienceMagArchives
Science Magazine35,978 views • 1 month ago