Where do the news stories come from?

Stories are sourced from peer-reviewed journals and preprint servers, then summarised in plain language.

How is science news different from other news sites?

Every story links to the background guide that explains the underlying concept, so you understand the science, not just the finding.

Science rarely settles everything at once. The "Still unknown" box names the open questions a study leaves unanswered.

The milestones are drawn from widely accepted histories of biology and chemistry, cross-checked against primary sources.

News · Biology · Chemistry

Each story says what happened, why it matters and what is still unknown, then links to the guide that explains the science behind it.

LEAD STORY BIOLOGY · [DATE] · [SOURCE]

[One-paragraph summary in plain words: who found what, and how they found it.]

WHAT HAPPENED

[The finding in one or two sentences.]

WHY IT MATTERS

[What it could change, for people or for research.]

STILL UNKNOWN

[The open questions and limits of the study.]

01 · Latest stories

Showing 6 of 6 stories

02 · From the archive

Today's textbooks were once breaking news. A few of the moments that changed biology and chemistry.

1665

Robert Hooke names the "cell"

In Micrographia he describes the tiny compartments he sees in cork.
1828

Friedrich Wöhler makes urea in the lab

An organic compound made from inorganic starting materials.
1859

On the Origin of Species is published

Charles Darwin sets out evolution by natural selection.
1869

Mendeleev presents his periodic table

He leaves gaps for elements not yet discovered, and predicts their properties.
1928

Alexander Fleming notices penicillin

A mould kills the bacteria around it on a culture plate.
1953

The double helix structure of DNA

Watson and Crick publish their model, built on X-ray work by Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins.
2003

Human Genome Project declared complete

A reference sequence for nearly all of the human genome.

: Stories are sourced from peer-reviewed journals including Nature and Science, plus the bioRxiv and ChemRxiv preprint servers. Each story links to the original paper so you can read the primary source.
: Every story links to the background guide that explains the underlying concept — so you understand why a finding matters, not just what it is. For broader science journalism guidance see the Science Media Centre and The Guardian Science.
: Science rarely settles everything at once. The "Still unknown" box names the open questions a study leaves unanswered — limitations of sample size, confounding variables, or follow-up experiments still needed. This framing follows the approach of Cochrane Reviews and evidence-based medicine.
: The milestones are drawn from widely accepted histories, cross-checked against primary sources. Key references include Molecular Biology of the Cell (Alberts et al., NCBI) for biology and the RSC history of the periodic table for chemistry.