March 21, 2026: Our weekly roundup of the latest science in the news, as well as a few fascinating articles to keep you entertained over the weekend.

People are buying helmets, face masks, vests and beds that emit long-wavelength light. Beneath the hype, there is some interesting biology.

The iNaturalist cellphone app not only helps users identify plant, animal and insect species; it also provides invaluable data to scientists studying biodiversity, species decline, and habitat loss.

Psychologist John Wixted says that through the course of a criminal investigation, an eyewitnesses memory can be influenced and altered. But under the right conditions, that testimony can be reliable.

The past 11 years were the 11 hottest on record amid an increasing onslaught of climate-driven disasters, the World Meteorological Organization said in a new report

Is Tau Ceti a real star? Is there a rocky exoplanet called Erid? How long can astronauts stay in space? Are there microbes on other planets? NASA has answers, shedding light on the science facts behind the fiction in “Project Hail Mary.

Organizers said the regional competition featured 40 projects from schools across central Nebraska.

Years ago I read an article asking, “Are you a night owl or a morning lark?” The piece explored the notion that some of us do our best thinking beyond midnight, while others prefer to rise and shine early and take in the day.

A passion for snakes opened a crack in the religious beliefs science communicator Paul Martin Jensen grew up with in a end-times Pentecostal church.

The much-anticipated sci-fi film Project Hail Mary is out in theaters today. In it, light-eating alien microbes sap the sun’s energy, threatening life on Earth with extinction. To find a solution, an unlikely hero—a middle school teacher played by Ryan Gosling—is sent on a one-way mission to the star Tau Ceti and encounters an otherworldly sidekick nicknamed Rocky along the way.