Portal:Science

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Members of the Academy in 1667 with Louis XIV

Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable explanations about nature and society. It is driven by the scientific method: an empirical cycle that typically involves making observations, producing hypotheses, testing them with evidence, and drawing conclusions. Science encompasses this process and the body of knowledge it produces, which the scientific community continuously challenges, validates, and organises. (Full article...)

Featured article -

Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

Image 1

Illustration by J. G. Keulemans, 1904

The Choiseul pigeon (Microgoura meeki) is an extinct species of bird in the pigeon and dove family, Columbidae. It was endemic to the island of Choiseul in the Solomon Islands, although there are unsubstantiated reports that it may once have lived on several nearby islands. The last confirmed sighting was in 1904. Other common names were the Solomons crested pigeon, the Solomon Islands crowned-pigeon and the kuvojo. (Full article...)
Image 2

Heard Island

The Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands is an Australian external territory in the southern Indian Ocean. Discovered in the mid-19th century, the territory is a group of sub-Antarctic volcanic islands that lie on the Kerguelen Plateau. It is about 4000 kilometres (2500 mi) south-west of the Australian mainland and 1700 kilometres (1100 mi) north of Antarctica. The territory contains Australia's only active volcanoes and is home to its highest point outside the Australian Antarctic Territory, Mawson Peak. The territory is uninhabited and has been described as one of the most remote places on Earth. (Full article...)
Image 3

The only specimen in existence today

The spotted green pigeon or Liverpool pigeon (Caloenas maculata) is a species of pigeon which is most likely extinct. It was first mentioned and described in 1783 by John Latham, who had seen two specimens of unknown provenance and a drawing depicting the bird. The taxonomic relationships of the bird were long obscure, and early writers suggested many different possibilities, though the idea that it was related to the Nicobar pigeon (C. nicobarica) prevailed, and it was therefore placed in the same genus, Caloenas. Today, the species is only known from a specimen kept in World Museum, Liverpool. Overlooked for much of the 20th century, it was recognised as a valid extinct species by the IUCN Red List only in 2008. It may have been native to an island somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean or the Indian Ocean, and it has been suggested that a bird referred to as titi by Tahitian islanders was this bird. In 2014, a genetic study confirmed it as a distinct species related to the Nicobar pigeon, and showed that the two were the closest relatives of the extinct dodo and Rodrigues solitaire. (Full article...)
Image 4
Robert Sterling Yard in Yosemite National Park, 1920

Robert Sterling Yard (February 1, 1861 – May 17, 1945) was an American writer, journalist, and wilderness activist. Born in Haverstraw, New York, Yard graduated from Princeton University and spent the first twenty years of his career in the editing and publishing business. In 1915, he was recruited by his friend Stephen Mather to help publicize the need for an independent national park agency. Their numerous publications were part of a movement that resulted in legislative support for a National Park Service (NPS) in 1916. Yard served as head of the National Parks Educational Committee for several years after its conception, but tension within the NPS led him to concentrate on non-government initiatives. He became executive secretary of the National Parks Association in 1919. (Full article...)
Image 5

Mauna Loa as seen from the air.
Hualālai is visible in the background.

Mauna Loa (/ˌmɔːnə ˈloʊ.ə, ˌmaʊnə -/, Hawaiian: [ˈmɐwnə ˈlowə]; lit. 'Long Mountain') is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii in the U.S. state of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. Mauna Loa is Earth's largest active volcano by both mass and volume. It was historically considered to be the largest volcano on Earth until the submarine mountain Tamu Massif was discovered to be larger. Mauna Loa is a shield volcano with relatively gentle slopes, and a volume estimated at 18,000 cubic miles (75,000 km³), although its peak is about 125 feet (38 m) lower than that of its neighbor, Mauna Kea. Lava eruptions from Mauna Loa are silica-poor and very fluid, and tend to be non-explosive. (Full article...)
Image 6
Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins is a 2008 television film created by Discovery Films and Oxford Scientific Films as a prequel to the Animal Planet series Meerkat Manor. A scripted documentary narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, the film details the life of a meerkat named Flower from birth to her becoming the leader of a meerkat group called the Whiskers. The film is based on the research notes of the Kalahari Meerkat Project and primarily uses wild meerkat "actors" to represent those in the story. Shot over two years at the Kuruman River Reserve in Northern Cape, South Africa, the film employed a much larger crew than the series. Some scenes were shot at a wildlife park in the United Kingdom, while others were created using camera tricks and trained film animals. (Full article...)
Image 7

Inflorescence

Banksia epica is a shrub that grows on the south coast of Western Australia. A spreading bush with wedge-shaped serrated leaves and large creamy-yellow flower spikes, it grows up to 3½ metres (11½ ft) high. It is known only from two isolated populations in the remote southeast of the state, near the western edge of the Great Australian Bight. Both populations occur among coastal heath on cliff-top dunes of siliceous sand. (Full article...)
Image 8

The Olympic marmot (Marmota olympus) is a rodent in the squirrel family, Sciuridae. It occurs only in the U.S. state of Washington, at the middle elevations of the Olympic Peninsula. The closest relatives of this species are the hoary marmot and the Vancouver Island marmot. In 2009, it was declared the official endemic mammal of Washington state. (Full article...)
Image 9
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(mostly astrological) (Full article...)
Image 10
In algebraic geometry and theoretical physics, mirror symmetry is a relationship between geometric objects called Calabi–Yau manifolds. The term refers to a situation where two Calabi–Yau manifolds look very different geometrically but are nevertheless equivalent when employed as extra dimensions of string theory. (Full article...)
Image 11

A male

The black honeyeater (Sugomel nigrum) is a species of bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae and the sole species in the genus Sugomel. The black honeyeater exhibits sexual dimorphism, with the male being black and white while the female is a speckled grey-brown; immature birds look like the female. The species is endemic to Australia, and ranges widely across the arid areas of the continent, through open woodland and shrubland, particularly in areas where the emu bush and related species occur. (Full article...)
Image 12

Hypothetical reconstruction by John Gerrard Keulemans, 1907

The Réunion swamphen (Porphyrio caerulescens), also known as the Réunion gallinule or oiseau bleu (French for "blue bird"), is a hypothetical extinct species of rail that was endemic to the Mascarene island of Réunion. While only known from 17th- and 18th-century accounts by visitors to the island, it was scientifically named in 1848, based on the 1674 account by Sieur Dubois. A considerable literature was subsequently devoted to its possible affinities, with current researchers agreeing it was derived from the swamphen genus Porphyrio. It has been considered mysterious and enigmatic due to the lack of any physical evidence of its existence. (Full article...)
Image 13
The nebular hypothesis is the most widely accepted model in the field of cosmogony to explain the formation and evolution of the Solar System (as well as other planetary systems). It suggests the Solar System was formed from gas and dust orbiting the Sun which accreted to form the planets. The theory was developed by Immanuel Kant and published in his Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens (1755) and then modified in 1796 by Pierre Laplace. Originally applied to the Solar System, the process of planetary system formation is now thought to be at work throughout the universe. The widely accepted modern variant of the nebular theory is the solar nebular disk model (SNDM) or solar nebular model. It offered explanations for a variety of properties of the Solar System, including the nearly circular and coplanar orbits of the planets, and their motion in the same direction as the Sun's rotation. Some elements of the original nebular theory are echoed in modern theories of planetary formation, but most elements have been superseded. (Full article...)
Image 14

The Papuan mountain pigeon (Gymnophaps albertisii) is a species of bird in the pigeon family, Columbidae. It is found in the Bacan Islands, New Guinea, the D'Entrecasteaux Islands, and the Bismarck Archipelago, where it inhabits primary forest, montane forest, and lowlands. It is a medium-sized species of pigeon, being 33–36 cm (13–14 in) long and weighing 259 g (9.1 oz) on average. Adult males have slate-grey upperparts, chestnut-maroon throats and bellies, whitish breasts, and a pale grey terminal tail band. The lores and orbital region are bright red. Females are similar, but have grayish breasts and grey edges to the throat feathers. (Full article...)
Image 15

Along Astley Road

Chat Moss is a large area of peat bog that makes up part of the City of Salford, Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and Trafford in Greater Manchester, England. It also makes up part of Metropolitan Borough of St Helens in Merseyside and Warrington in Cheshire. North of the Manchester Ship Canal and River Mersey, 5 miles (8 km) to the west of Manchester, it occupies an area of about 10.6 square miles (27.5 km²). (Full article...)

Featured pictures

Featured pictures about Science.

Image 1Dichroic prism, by XRay (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 2Translational motion at Thermodynamic temperature, by Greg L (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 3Mechanical advantage device, by Prolineserver (edited by Tomia, Ss181292 and Atropos235) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 4Light dispersion, by LucasVB (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 5NASA study on wingtip vortices at Wake turbulence, by Langley Research Center (edited by Fir0002) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 6Color cathodoluminescence of a diamond, by Pavel.Somov (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 7Global oceanic and terrestrial photoautotroph abundance at Primary production, by SeaWiFS Project (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 8Animation of a water drop, by Chris 73 and Gmaxwell (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 9Parallax, by Mila Zinkova (edited by Richard Bartz) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 10Total internal reflection, by Jean-Marc Kuffer (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 11Diet Coke and Mentos eruption, by Mikemurphy (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 12Kármán vortex street, by Cesareo de La Rosa Siqueira (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 13Thermite reaction, by Nikthestunned (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 14Australian Synchrotron, by John O'Neill (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 15Rusty chain, by WikipedianMarlith (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 16Wind wave, by Alvesgaspar (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
$Image 17Refraction in raindrops, by Mila Zinkova (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)$
Image 17Refraction in raindrops, by Mila Zinkova (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 18Archaeologists prospecting Santa Ana Cave at Excavation (archaeology), by Mario modesto (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 19Archaeological excavation at Atapuerca Mountains, by Mario modesto (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 20Ice core, by the Greenland Ice Sheet Project (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 21A patient being treated for COVID-19, by Gustavo Basso (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 22Nobel Prize in Physics diploma, by Sofia Gisberg (restored by Jebulon) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 23Warming stripes, by Ed Hawkins (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 24Lorentz transformation of world line, by Cyp (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 25Vibrating glass beam at Euler–Bernoulli beam theory, by Ben pcc (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 26Oblique shock, by NASA/United States Air Force (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 27Simulation of liquids with different viscosities, by Synapticrelay (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 28Peruvian Andes at United States Exploring Expedition, by Alfred Thomas Agate (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 29Fast breeder reactor, by Graevemoore (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 30Hypervelocity impact demonstration, by NASA (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 31Section of the Large Hadron Collider, by Maximilien Brice (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 32Plasma globe, by Colin (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 33Drop impact on a liquid surface, by José Manuel Suárez (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 34Holdridge life zones, by Peter Halasz (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 35Operation Tumbler-Snapper, by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 36Toroid magnets of the ATLAS detector, by Maximilien Brice, CERN (edited by Bammesk) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 37Activation energy, by Debivort (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 38Projectile motion of a bouncing ball at Inelastic collision, by MichaelMaggs (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)

Vital articles

Vital articles to understand Science.

Physics is the scientific study of matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. It is one of the most fundamental scientific disciplines. A scientist who specializes in the field of physics is called a physicist. (Full article...)

Did you know...

Did you know it about Science?

... that the communist-era science-fiction novel Małe zielone ludziki presents a futuristic depiction of Africa that reflects Polish perceptions of the continent during the Cold War?
... that a library of religion and science in Tennessee never opened to the public?
... that the Data Colada bloggers drew attention to the replication crisis by exposing faulty social science research?
... that science writer Melissa Sevigny took a rafting trip down the Colorado River to research a book?
... that diverse fields study the mind, including psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, and philosophy?
... that Nancy Chitera leads a university whose commercial subsidiaries plan to manufacture tractors and commence gold mining in Malawi?

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Integrate relatively new scientific knowledge and findings (major studies reported on by RS) into relevant articles
- You can also go through this list of items that were nearly/not included in the last Year in science article to find studies to integrate elsewhere (many of these contain notable info, you can filter them by field and many rows have a likely relevant article already wikilinked in the last column)
- Complete requests of other editors on the talk pages of science-related articles (examples)
Expand 2026 in science and/or other articles for science-related topics of the year (in the box on the right)
- Create new articles for items of this article, mostly articles relating to new scientific fields/topics/findings (the page does not use redlinks anymore but you will quickly identify possible new articles when reading it; here you can find a version with over 60 redlinked examples)
- Some of the lists' items have not yet been integrated into their wikilinked articles; if you add a study there it should also be relevant to at least one other article
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Find studies published under a compatible open license (like CC BY 4.0) and upload the studies' images with descriptions from the study and add these images to articles if they are relevant and useful there
- When a study with a useful image is published under an incompatible or unclear license (or the image is published not in a study but elsewhere), you could contact its authors (Twitter/Mail) and ask them to give you the permission to upload them under CC BY 4.0 (or whether they could upload the image/s under a compatible license)
- You can also think about whether images would be useful as you read a science-related article and then search for such images:
  - if they already exist add them (if already on WMCommons) or upload them (if the license is ok) or ask their authors for permissions
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Science News

Further information: 2026 in science

12 August 2026 – MoM-BH*-1: Astronomers studying a little red dot found by the James Webb Space Telescope announce in Nature the discovery of the first black hole star. The first object classed as such, [[MoM-BH;12 August 2026 – MoM-BH*-1; -1]], in the constellation of Cetus, is the size of the Solar System and emits a light that outshines its host galaxy. (The Guardian) (PopSci)
18 July 2026 – Space industry of India: Skyroot Aerospace successfully launches Vikram-1, India's first privately built orbital rocket, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh, carrying small satellite payloads into low Earth orbit on its maiden flight. (AFP via Asharq Al-Awsat)
16 July 2026 –: Astronomers report the first observationally confirmed atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet within its star's habitable zone, after detecting helium escaping from the upper atmosphere of LHS 1140 b, a super-Earth approximately 49 light-years from Earth. (Space.com)
15 July 2026 – Discoveries of exoplanets: Astronomers directly image the exoplanet Beta Pictoris d next to its star, located 63 light-years away, using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. It is also reported to be fainter than its sibling Beta Pictoris b. The discovery is published in the The Astrophysical Journal. (ABC News) (Space.com)
13 July 2026 –: Astronomers announce that an erythrulose molecule was detected inside a cloud of gas and dust near the center of the Milky Way. It is the first evidence of sugar in interstellar space. (Nature)
10 July 2026 – 2026 in spaceflight: China becomes the second country to achieve the controlled recovery of an orbital-class rocket booster, after successfully launching the Long March 10B. (South China Morning Post)