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 hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into two – or three – major branches: the natural sciences, which study the physical world, and the social sciences, which study individuals and societies. While referred to as the formal sciences, the study of logic, mathematics, and theoretical computer science are typically regarded as separate because they rely on deductive reasoning instead of the scientific method as their main methodology. Meanwhile, applied sciences are disciplines that use scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as engineering and medicine. (Full article...)

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

Image 1

Upper parts of the crozier

The Clonmacnoise Crozier is a late-11th-century Insular crozier that would have been used as a ceremonial staff for bishops and mitred abbots. Its origins and medieval provenance are unknown. It was likely discovered in the late 18th or early 19th century in the monastery of Clonmacnoise in County Offaly, Ireland. The crozier has two main parts: a long shaft and a curved crook. Its style reflects elements of Viking art, especially the snake-like animals in figure-of-eight patterns running on the sides of the body of the crook, and the ribbon of dog-like animals in openwork (ornamentation with openings or holes) that form the crest at its top. Apart from a shortening to the staff length and the loss of some inserted gems, it is largely intact and is one of the best-preserved surviving pieces of Insular metalwork. (Full article...)
Image 2
George Ward (30 November 1993 – 18 September 2022), better known by the stage name Cherry Valentine, was an English drag queen and mental health nurse who competed in the second series of the television show RuPaul's Drag Race UK. Raised in a Romanichal community, Ward has been credited as the first contestant on the Drag Race franchise to acknowledge his Romani heritage. In 2022, he addressed his background in the BBC documentary film Cherry Valentine: Gypsy Queen and Proud, and in an episode of the documentary series God Shave the Queens. Following Ward's suicide in 2022, a memorial concert and fundraiser was held at London's Clapham Grand. (Full article...)
Image 3

At Ranomafana, Madagascar

The Mascarene martin or Mascarene swallow (Phedina borbonica) is a passerine bird in the swallow family that breeds in Madagascar and in the Mascarene Islands. The nominate subspecies occurs on Mauritius and Réunion and has never been found away from the Mascarene Islands, but the smaller Madagascan subspecies, P. b. madagascariensis, is migratory and has been recorded wintering in East Africa or wandering to other Indian Ocean islands. (Full article...)
Image 4

Painting by Jacques Barraband, ca. 1800

The Cuban macaw or Cuban red macaw (Ara tricolor) is an extinct species of macaw native to the main island of Cuba and the nearby Isla de la Juventud. It became extinct in the late 19th century. Its relationship with other macaws in its genus was long uncertain, but it was thought to have been closely related to the scarlet macaw, which has some similarities in appearance. It may also have been closely related, or identical, to the hypothetical Gosse's macaw (A. gossei). A 2018 DNA study found the Cuban macaw to be the sister species of two red and two green species of extant macaws. (Full article...)
Image 5
Eruptions in the Lassen volcanic area in the last 70,000 years. Circle shows base of Mount Tehama. See timeline image.

The Lassen volcanic area presents a geological record of sedimentation and volcanic activity in and around Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California, U.S. The park is located in the southernmost part of the Cascade Mountain Range in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Pacific Oceanic tectonic plates have plunged below the North American Plate in this part of North America for hundreds of millions of years. Heat and molten rock from these subducting plates has fed scores of volcanoes in California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia over at least the past 30 million years, including these in the Lassen volcanic areas. (Full article...)
Image 6

The Apollo 11 50th Anniversary commemorative coins were issued by the United States Mint in 2019 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first crewed landing on the Moon by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Consisting of a gold half eagle ($5 coin), two different sizes of silver dollars, and a copper-nickel clad half dollar, each of the four was issued in proof condition, with all but the larger silver dollar also issued in uncirculated. The gold coins were struck at the West Point Mint, the silver at the Philadelphia Mint and the base metal half dollars at the mints in Denver and San Francisco. (Full article...)
Image 7

Liver histology is altered in HRS while kidney histology is normal. The upper image is a trichrome stain (chicken wire appearance) cirrhosis of the liver, the most common cause of HRS. The lower image is a PAS stain of normal kidney histology.

Hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) is a life-threatening medical condition that consists of rapid deterioration in kidney function in individuals with cirrhosis or fulminant liver failure. HRS is usually fatal unless a liver transplant is performed, although various treatments, such as dialysis, can prevent advancement of the condition. (Full article...)
Image 8

Imperator torosus, commonly known as the brawny bolete, is a species of bolete fungus in the family Boletaceae. It is native to southern Europe east to the Caucasus and Israel. It is generally associated with deciduous trees such as hornbeam, oak and beech in warm, dry locales. Although generally rare in Europe, it appears to be relatively common in Hungary. Appearing in summer and autumn on chalky soils, the stocky fruit bodies have an ochre cap up to 20 cm (8 in) across, yellow pores on the cap underside, and a wine-red to brown or blackish stipe up to 6–15 cm (2.4–5.9 in) long by 3–6 cm (1.2–2.4 in) wide. The pale yellow flesh changes to different colours when broken or bruised depending on age; younger mushrooms become reddish, and older ones additionally take on bluish tones. (Full article...)
Image 9

Reconstructed T. sethi skeleton (front, the postcranium is hypothetical), National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo

Thalassodromeus is a genus of pterosaur that lived in what is now Brazil during the Early Cretaceous period, about a hundred million years ago. The original skull, discovered in 1983 in the Araripe Basin of northeastern Brazil, was collected in several pieces. In 2002, the skull was made the holotype specimen of Thalassodromeus sethi by palaeontologists Alexander Kellner and Diogenes de Almeida Campos. The generic name means "sea runner" (in reference to its supposed mode of feeding), and the specific name refers to the Egyptian god Seth due to its crest being supposedly reminiscent of Seth's crown. Other scholars have pointed out that the crest was instead similar to the crown of Amon. A jaw tip was assigned to T. sethi in 2005, became the basis of the new genus Banguela in 2015, and assigned back to Thalassodromeus as the species T. oberlii in 2018, though other researchers consider it a valid genus. Another species (T. sebesensis) was described in 2015 based on a supposed crest fragment, but this was later shown to be part of a turtle shell. (Full article...)
Image 10

Skull cast with reconstructed predentary bone, right horn, and left part of face

Kosmoceratops (/ˌkɒzməˈsɛrətɒps/) is a genus of ceratopsid dinosaur that lived in North America about 76–75.9 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period. Specimens were discovered in Utah in the Kaiparowits Formation of the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument in 2006 and 2007, including an adult skull and postcranial skeleton and partial subadults. In 2010, the adult was made the holotype of the new genus and species Kosmoceratops richardsoni; the generic name means "ornate horned face", and the specific name honors Scott Richardson, who found the specimens. The find was part of a spate of ceratopsian discoveries in the early 21st century, and Kosmoceratops was considered significant due to its elaborate skull ornamentation. (Full article...)
Image 11
Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has the symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all normal matter. Under standard conditions, hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules with the formula H₂, called dihydrogen, or sometimes hydrogen gas, molecular hydrogen, or simply hydrogen. Dihydrogen is colorless, odorless, non-toxic, and highly combustible. Stars, including the Sun, mainly consist of hydrogen in a plasma state, while on Earth, hydrogen is found as the gas H₂ (dihydrogen) and in molecules, such as in water and organic compounds. The most common isotope of hydrogen, ¹H, consists of one proton, one electron, and no neutrons. (Full article...)
Image 12

Hottentotta tamulus from Mangaon, Maharashtra, India

Scorpions (order Scorpiones) are predatory arachnids with eight legs, a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always ending with a stinger. The evolutionary history of scorpions goes back 435 million years. They mainly live in deserts but have adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions, and can be found on all continents except Antarctica. There are over 2,500 described species, with 22 extant (living) families recognized to date. Their taxonomy is being revised to account for 21st-century genomic studies. (Full article...)
Image 13

Specimen at World Museum, Liverpool, one of two in existence. Note scattered blue feathers

The white swamphen (Porphyrio albus), also known as the Lord Howe swamphen, Lord Howe gallinule or white gallinule, is an extinct species of rail which lived on Lord Howe Island, east of Australia. It was first encountered when the crews of British ships visited the island between 1788 and 1790, and all contemporary accounts and illustrations were produced during this time. Today, two skins exist: the holotype in the Natural History Museum of Vienna, and another in Liverpool's World Museum. Although historical confusion has existed about the provenance of the specimens and the classification and anatomy of the bird, it is now thought to have been a distinct species endemic to Lord Howe Island and most similar to the Australasian swamphen. Subfossil bones have also been discovered since. (Full article...)
Image 14
Crowds await news at the Universal Colliery, Senghenydd.

The Senghenydd colliery disaster, also known as the Senghenydd explosion (Welsh: Tanchwa Senghennydd), occurred at the Universal Colliery in Senghenydd, near Caerphilly, Glamorgan, Wales, on 14 October 1913. The explosion, which killed 439 coal miners and a rescuer, is the worst mining accident in the United Kingdom. Universal Colliery, on the South Wales Coalfield, extracted steam coal, which was much in demand. Some of the region's coal seams contained high quantities of firedamp, a highly explosive gas consisting of methane and hydrogen. (Full article...)
Image 15

A great white pelican in breeding condition flying over Walvis Bay, Namibia.

Pelicans (genus Pelecanus) are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before swallowing. They have predominantly pale plumage, except for the brown and Peruvian pelicans. The bills, pouches, and bare facial skin of all pelicans become brightly coloured before the breeding season. (Full article...)

Featured pictures

Featured pictures about Science.

Image 1Toroid magnets of the ATLAS detector, by Maximilien Brice, CERN (edited by Bammesk) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 2Oblique shock, by NASA/United States Air Force (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 3Projectile motion of a bouncing ball at Inelastic collision, by MichaelMaggs (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 4Mechanical advantage device, by Prolineserver (edited by Tomia, Ss181292 and Atropos235) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 5Australian Synchrotron, by John O'Neill (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 6NASA study on wingtip vortices at Wake turbulence, by Langley Research Center (edited by Fir0002) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 7Animation of a water drop, by Chris 73 and Gmaxwell (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 8Operation Tumbler-Snapper, by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 9Simulation of liquids with different viscosities, by Synapticrelay (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 10Global oceanic and terrestrial photoautotroph abundance at Primary production, by SeaWiFS Project (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 11Nobel Prize in Physics diploma, by Sofia Gisberg (restored by Jebulon) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 12Section of the Large Hadron Collider, by Maximilien Brice (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 13Diet Coke and Mentos eruption, by Mikemurphy (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 14Drop impact on a liquid surface, by José Manuel Suárez (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 15Warming stripes, by Ed Hawkins (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 16Light dispersion, by LucasVB (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 17Archaeologists prospecting Santa Ana Cave at Excavation (archaeology), by Mario modesto (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 18Wind wave, by Alvesgaspar (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 19Rusty chain, by WikipedianMarlith (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 20Total internal reflection, by Jean-Marc Kuffer (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 21Thermite reaction, by Nikthestunned (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 22Fast breeder reactor, by Graevemoore (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 23Hypervelocity impact demonstration, by NASA (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 24Plasma globe, by Colin (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
$Image 25Refraction in raindrops, by Mila Zinkova (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)$

Image 25Refraction in raindrops, by Mila Zinkova (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 26Holdridge life zones, by Peter Halasz (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 27Vibrating glass beam at Euler–Bernoulli beam theory, by Ben pcc (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 28Archaeological excavation at Atapuerca Mountains, by Mario modesto (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 29Translational motion at Thermodynamic temperature, by Greg L (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 30Ice core, by the Greenland Ice Sheet Project (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 31Parallax, by Mila Zinkova (edited by Richard Bartz) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 32Color cathodoluminescence of a diamond, by Pavel.Somov (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 33Kármán vortex street, by Cesareo de La Rosa Siqueira (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 34Peruvian Andes at United States Exploring Expedition, by Alfred Thomas Agate (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 35Activation energy, by Debivort (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 36Lorentz transformation of world line, by Cyp (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)
Image 37Dichroic prism, by XRay (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Sciences/Others)

Vital articles

Vital articles to understand Science.

Three-sector circular flow of income diagram

Economics (/ˌɛkəˈnɒmɪks, ˌiːkə-/) is a social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. (Full article...)

Did you know...

Did you know it about Science?

... that author Paul Corey built a door featured in Popular Science that both people and pets could open?
... that zoologist Olive Swezy appeared in the 1944 American Men of Science?
... that Brian Stableford blamed the cancellation of the follow-up to his 2006 book Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia on the availability of information online?
... that Korean science fiction has evolved into distinct North and South branches since the first work appeared in 1929?
... that public health measures and advances in medical science in modern human history helped raise global life expectancy from about 31 years in 1900 to over 66 years in 2000?
... that, after an attempt to sell the Tokamak de Varennes to Iran failed, it became a display at the Canada Science and Technology Museum?

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Integrate relatively new scientific knowledge and findings (major studies reported on by RS) into relevant articles
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Science News

Further information: 2026 in science

27 January 2026 –: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announces that the Doomsday Clock has been set to 85 seconds before midnight, the closest it has been to midnight, citing rising global tensions. (CNN) (Reuters)
25 January 2026 –: Thailand launches its first effort to reintroduce endangered Indo-Pacific leopard sharks into the wild by releasing captive-bred juveniles near the Phuket province. (Reuters)
8 January 2026 –: A woman is killed in a shark attack off the coast of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. The species of the shark involved is currently unknown. (AP)
20 December 2025 – Blue Origin NS-37: German engineer Michaela Benthaus becomes the first person in a wheelchair and the first with paraplegia to travel to space on a sub-orbital trip conducted by Blue Origin. (DW)
28 November 2025 –: A team of scientists announces the detection of electric discharges in the atmosphere of Mars for the first time by NASA's Perseverance rover, detected near the Jezero crater region, as a phenomenon described as "mini lightning", though not confirmed to be the same as actual lightning. (BBC News)

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