Science

“Make life harder” is a strange rallying cry. Yet in January, journalist Kathryn Jezer-Morton at the Cut went viral for touting friction-maxxing. “Stop using ChatGPT completely,” she wrote. “No, it does not have good ideas for meal planning. Buy a cookbook....

An innovative 3D printing process that advanced NASA’s approach to outfitting a lunar habitat is making buildings on Earth beautiful, efficient, and strong. Instead of building structures layer by layer, Branch Technology Inc. of Chattanooga, Tennessee, has developed a process the company calls Freeform 3D Printing, which creates shapes with lightweight...

It’s been 37 years since scientists first demonstrated the ability to move single atoms, suggesting the possibility of...

At a busy airport, every aircraft in the area shares just a handful of radio frequencies. Spectrum and time are constrained and if multiple people speak at once, both messages can get lost. Communications like “clearance delivery,” which require...

Using a new technique that can create vacancies at any site across a material and then shrink it to...

NASA will hold its 2026 Lunabotics Challenge Tuesday, May 19, to Thursday, May 21, at the Astronauts Memorial Foundation’s Center for Space Education at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.   Links to view the Lunabotics competition live can be found on the agency’s Lunabotics page. The competition is slated...

A fetus doesn’t have to see a yawn to catch it. Mothers can spread yawns to their yet-to-be-born offspring during pregnancy, researchers report May 5 in Current Biology. Yawning is contagious among many social creatures, including humans, dogs, lions and parakeets. While the behavior is...

NASA and SpaceX are targeting a mid-May launch to deliver scientific investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station.  Loaded with about 6,500 pounds of supplies, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will lift off aboard the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station...

For decades, NASA has advanced on-board spacecraft computer processors that coordinate and execute the functions needed to support mission success. Space computing originated in the 1960s with the Apollo Guidance Computers, which were pivotal for guidance, navigation, and control computations...

Lily Burton is the Spring 2026 science writing intern at Science News. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Molecular and Cell Biology and Anthropology from UC Berkeley. She also has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from the...