Humans
- Health & Medicine
Let’s learn about vaccines
These medical treatments have saved millions of lives and spared many others from seriously unpleasant infections.
- Brain
Parakeets talk using brain areas similar to ours
Brain activity during vocalizing in small parrots — called budgerigars or parakeets — shows a similar pattern to what’s seen in people.
- Materials Science
This electric ‘slime’ might help injuries heal faster
Our bodies call in healing cells with an electrical signal. When stretched or squeezed, this gel makes electricity that could boost that alert.
- Chemistry
A new map of Africa sheds light on the origins of enslaved people
Mapping the element strontium across the continent is helping track down the birthplaces of enslaved Africans brought to the Americas.
- Health & Medicine
Nearsighted? Teens’ benefits from special contacts can be lasting
Multifocal contact lenses stop the progression of myopia — and the benefits can last even after use of these special lenses ends.
By Laura Allen - Chemistry
Teen finds cheaper way to make drugs against killer viruses
This drug-making achievement also nabbed the top award — and $100,000 in prize money — at the 2025 Regeneron ISEF competition.
- Space
Is the International Space Station too clean?
Testing surfaces on board the space station revealed low microbial diversity, something that’s been linked to health problems elsewhere.
- Health & Medicine
ADHD symptoms may boost teens’ risk of vaping or smoking
Having multiple ADHD symptoms increases a teen’s risk of using vapes or other tobacco. That’s bad because nicotine is especially addictive for kids.
- Humans
Wiggling ears may have once helped boost human hearing
Ancient ear muscles may not help us hear today. They can, however, offer one readout of how hard someone is trying to listen.
- Materials Science
A beautiful blue butterfly wing offers a new way to study cancer
Once a morpho butterfly wing is placed atop a thin slice of tissue, shining polarized light through it can help reveal how likely breast cancer is to spread.
- Health & Medicine
Explainer: What is cancer?
Cancer is a whole collection of diseases with one thing in common: all develop when the body’s cells start dividing out of control.
- Materials Science
This engineer uses light to get hearts pumping
Pengju Li designed a new type of pacemaker to help doctors during open-heart surgery.