10 EXAMPLES OF POPULAR SCIENCE ARTICLES - SCIENCE

Today I bring you some examples of popular science articles that both children and adults can understand and that in addition to teaching them will help them better understand the importance of this type of text.

According to research from the University of Ottawa, in 2009 the mark of 50 million scientific studies published since 1665 was surpassed, and approximately 2.5 million new studies are published each year.

Old article from the well-known magazine Nature

What is a popular science article?

Popular science articles are informative texts written in scientific journals that are based on scientific research or hypotheses based on science.

Scientific popularization requires that a large part of the complexity of scientific theories be removed so that the general public can understand them.

It is very important that these articles are accessible to the public, maintaining the quality and veracity characteristic of a scientific investigation.

What is the goal / objective of a popular article?

The main purpose of a popular article is to disseminate technological, scientific or academic research, in a way that is understandable to the general public, and whose structure is short and close to the reader.

There are even popular articles aimed at children and adolescents, which indicates that the language used should be even closer and that it promotes easy understanding.

Popular articles precisely seek to get the information from the studies of the scientific world to the readers, so that they can relate the advances of science with their lives.

What is sought is that readers can know and understand the implications of these investigations both in their personal context and in the social environment that surrounds them. In this way they will be more willing to consider them of greater importance.

Main features

The author does not have to be a scientist / researcher

Among the most outstanding characteristics of popular articles stands out the fact that the author does not necessarily have to be a scientist or a professional in the field of technology.

However, it is essential that all the information contained in this type of article has been provided by notable, reliable and authorized sources, and that it is duly confirmed and verified.

Objective point of view

Another main characteristic of these types of articles is that they are not considered spaces through which the author will present his personal opinions.

This investigative genre is based on the rigor of science, so the points of view of the authors are less important than the data produced by the investigation.

Understandable information

Since the intention is to massify the investigation, in a popular article, everything possible will be done so that people understand the information. For this it is beneficial to make use of examples and analogies.

Converting hard and impersonal data into close elements and with direct implications for the reader will make the reader more interested in the article and understand it much better.

Accompanied by interactive content

In the same vein, a popular article will be even more accessible to the general public if it is accompanied by images, tables, illustrations and other graphic resources.

Using these resources will add dynamism to the article and allow for better understanding, while making it much more attractive to the reader.

Published in specialized media

These types of articles are usually published in specialized media, such as scientific journals or web portals dedicated to the dissemination of advances in science.

If the subject matter of the articles has implications that apply to a large part of the population, they can also be found in mass-produced publications, such as newspapers and magazines, located in the section or section that is directly related to the subject in question.

Examples of popular science articles

Scientists develop a blood test to detect cancer in early stages

The complication of many diseases is generated due to late detection. In many cases, it is possible to treat a disease if its presence is identified in advance, even before the first symptoms appear.

Cancer is one of the diseases that brings the greatest complications if it is not detected in time. As a result, various researchers have dedicated themselves to studying this disease, to try to develop mechanisms that allow early detection that allows the corresponding treatment to be applied effectively.

Scientists from Johns Hopkins University in the United States have discovered a blood test that is capable of detecting up to 8 of the most common types of cancer that affect the world's population.

The idea of this study is to make it possible to identify cancerous tumors when they are still small and can be surgically removed from the body.

In the development of cancer disease, the first symptoms usually appear when the tumors are already large and their removal is impossible, which favors the complication of the disease and can even lead to the death of the patient.

Then, a detection in blood prior to those first symptoms opens the possibility of removing the malignant cells when they have not yet generated so much damage to the body. This increases the chances of keeping those suffering from this disease alive.

The first test in this study was done on 1005 patients with cancers of the pancreas, liver, ovary, colon, breast, stomach, or lung. These patients were unique in that they had one of these types of cancer that had not spread to other organs or tissues.

What was the result that the researchers obtained? That between 33% and 98% of cancers were successfully identified. It was possible to identify what type of cancer each person had, a differentiating element in relation to other blood tests developed before.

This is encouraging, especially when it comes to those variations of cancer that are usually not easy to detect before presenting symptoms, such as cancers of the liver, pancreas, ovary and stomach.

This blood test is designed to be done once a year and is currently being tested in a group of 50,000 women between the ages of 65 and 75 who have not been previously found to have cancer.

This study is expected to last about 5 years. Once the results of this study are obtained, it will be known if this blood test is really effective for detecting the disease.

Another advantage of this early detection modality is that it is extremely simple and more accessible than other forms of tumor identification, such as colonoscopy or mammography, which involve the use of scanners or the performance of more invasive medical interventions.

Nickolas Papadopoulos, professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins University, is the head of the investigation called CancerSEEK, and states that this study may mean a structural change in how cancer has been detected so far.

Another interest on the part of scientists is that this form of detection is affordable. The members of the research team indicated that this blood test will have a maximum value of $ 500.

The scientific community has been hopeful with this new form of detection; however, it does indicate that more research is needed, as the results showed that cancers that were in the earliest stages of the disease were not yet fully detected.

So, a more in-depth investigation is necessary to be able to increase the effectiveness of the result, decrease false positives and increase the number of types of cancers that can be detected.

The asteroid and the disappearance of the dinosaurs

It is undoubtedly impressive to imagine how the impact of an asteroid was able to generate such a definite change on the planet: nothing less than the disappearance of the dinosaurs and the beginning of a new era.

And is that this impact was not negligible. Scientists point out that the object that fell was 20 kilometers wide, and that the energy generated as a result of the impact is equivalent to having dropped 10,000 bombs like the one in Hiroshima.

This was about 65 million years ago, and although the asteroid is considered to be the main responsible for this phenomenon, it turns out that it was a set of elements in which the site where the asteroid fell is of vital importance.

The impact of the asteroid in a shallow, sulfur-rich coastal area resulted in a large display of smoke, debris and sulfur, leaving the Earth in near total darkness and isolated from sunlight.

These are part of the conclusions of the biologist Ben Garrod, who indicates that what really caused the extinction of the dinosaurs was the lack of food that was generated after the immense cloud of debris and gypsum produced as a result of the asteroid impact.

The implications of this were definitive. Some species managed to adapt, varying their diet and hiding in burrows, and others, such as dinosaurs, were less likely to survive and saw the end of their lives.

The exact site where the asteroid hit is on the Yucatán Peninsula, in the Gulf of Mexico. This generated a large crater on the surface of the area, called Chicxulub; the crater that was generated has a diameter of about 300 kilometers.

What was really deadly for the dinosaurs was the great layer of sulfur that spread throughout the atmosphere and that remained in it for a time.

Scientists and researchers have determined that the asteroid was not in itself the reason for the extinction of the dinosaurs, but that layer of sulfur that enveloped the planet.

In fact, according to these scholars, if the asteroid had impacted in deeper waters, the pulverized rock cloud would not have been generated and ended up in the atmosphere.

So what would have happened if the asteroid had impacted elsewhere? The most important thing is that the density of sulfur and debris would have been lower, which would have allowed sunlight to continue shining on Earth, allowing the existence of the form of life known until then.

That is, it is likely that the dinosaurs were not extinct at that time.

Just imagining this possibility allows us to be aware of the importance of this historical event, and not only because of the object of the impact, but especially because of the specific and decisive place where it ended up.

Appearance of humans

Homo Sapiens of the Paleolithic.

New findings arrive to rewrite history, this time the history of human beings. Past studies have shown that humans originated about 200,000 years ago, but new evidence shows something different.

A group of researchers found the oldest known human fossils; These fossils date to about 100,000 years before the time humans were thought to have originated.

That is, these fossils are considered to be between 300,000 and 350,000 years old.

The most relevant of this discovery is the site where they found this find: North Africa. Previously the accepted thesis was that the origin of the human being took place in a specific place located to the east of the African continent.

But with this new information it is possible to affirm then that man did not originate in a single area of the continent, but that the emergence of the species could have occurred throughout Africa.

The researcher and paleoanthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin is one of the scientists who participated in the finding and explains that the research allows them to think that the evolution of the human species was generated much more gradually than has been considered so far.

This conception of a more progressive process is generated specifically due to the notion that there was no unique place in which the human being as a species developed. Thanks to the fossils found, it is known that these could have also developed in other parts of Africa.

The fossils that are revolutionizing history were found in Jebel Irhoud, in Morocco, and they are the remains of five humans, among which are teeth, skulls and even bones from different parts of the body.

The investigation also yielded indications of the probable behavior of these specimens, whose similarities with the customs of Homo sapiens make it more evident that this Jebel Irhoud fossil not only looked very similar, but was part of the species.

Some of these behaviors are related to stone toolmaking and their ability to maneuver with fire.

Christopher Stringer, a British anthropologist, is another scientist who supports this hypothesis and goes even further. Stringer proposes that it is likely that the origin of man is not even limited to Africa, but it is possible that it may have been generated outside the continent.

According to Stringer, similar fossils, with almost equal age, have been found in other parts of the world, such as Israel. So, this allows us to think that there was no single origin, and that H omo sapiens was more widespread than had been thought up to now.

The mass extinctions

Life on the planet has been renewed several times. Scientists establish that there have been five major extinctions, with massive characteristics, that have affected life on Earth as it was known.

Perhaps the most famous is the extinction of the dinosaurs, but in fact that is only the most recent. Before that extinction there were four more, which in the same way completely changed the reality of the moment.

The first of these was generated no less than 439 million years ago. This extinction occurred specifically between the Ordovician and Silurian periods.

Several marine species were affected in this phenomenon as a consequence of the geological movement that originated internally.

This movement caused glaciers to melt and the sea level to rise. Studies have determined that in this extinction, about 60% of the species that inhabited the oceans disappeared.

The second mass extinction took place some time later, 364 million years ago. It was the late Devonian period and the phenomenon that was generated was an ice age like never before seen.

This glaciation decreased sea level and affected the life of between 60 and 70% of marine species, especially those that developed in warm environments.

Unlike the previous case, in this mass extinction it is not very clear what was the triggering reason for the phenomenon.

Scientists have handled different possibilities, among which the impact of a meteorite on the planet has a special place. However, conclusive evidence to confirm that hypothesis has not yet been found.

A third mass extinction occurred between the Permian and Triassic periods, about 251 million years ago. This extinction is considered by many scientists as the most devastating that has occurred on the planet.

The number of species that disappeared was impressive: 75% of terrestrial species and 95% of marine species.

In this case there are hypotheses found. One of these states that the extinction was generated as a consequence of a single, large and devastating event.

A second hypothesis was presented relatively recently, in 2005, and establishes that said extinction was generated in phases, not absolutely.

The proposal came from the hand of British and Chinese researchers, who investigated the marks left by a bacterium that appears to come from the late Permian period.

These tracks are located in China, in the Meishan region, and have yielded interesting discoveries.

Broadly speaking, this hypothesis of mass extinction generated in phases includes the impact of extraterrestrial objects, the increase in volcanic activity and global warming.

The penultimate great mass extinction occurred between the Triassic and Jurassic periods about 250 million years ago.

In this case, the reason for said extinction is believed to be linked to a very high volcanic activity, so high that it even generated the separation of the continent called Pangea.

In addition to this volcanism, the high temperatures and climate change that were generated also played a leading role, which contributed greatly to eliminating a good part of the life of the planet: more than 50% of the marine genus existing at the time.

The last and most notorious mass extinction occurred 65 million years ago: it is the extinction of the dinosaurs. This phenomenon was generated between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods and meant the disappearance of the largest reptiles on the planet.

It is known that there was an asteroid involved in the event that generated this extinction, but it has been discovered that it was not the asteroid itself that caused the disappearance of the species, but the fact that it impacted in shallow waters rich in sulfur.

This generated a cloud of elements that settled in the atmosphere and isolated the planet from sunlight, completely changing the known dynamics, leading to the death of many species and allowing the adaptation of others.

Fight against malaria

Some may consider it unthinkable that in the 21st century there are still outbreaks of malaria in the world. And these outbreaks are not negligible, given that this disease is the cause of about 440,000 deaths a year worldwide.

The reason that this disease has been so difficult to eradicate is that it is caused by the plasmodium parasite and transmitted by the anopheles mosquito, which is characterized by its rapid reproduction and increasing resistance to insecticides, the only clear option that there is to maintain them with a certain level of control.

Many initiatives have been carried out to eradicate this evil. It has been considered so noxious and powerful that it must be attacked from different flanks.

One of the most important achievements was the creation of a vaccine that generated 100% immunity in the study subjects. This finding was released at the beginning of 2017 and represents the closest option for the prevention of malaria.

The study was carried out in the Netherlands, and it is now necessary to verify whether the positive results of this vaccine can be reproduced in the African population, which is the most affected by outbreaks of malaria.

In any case, it is undeniable that it represents an important step towards the total eradication of this deadly disease.

Another valid and necessary approach has been to consider external obstacles. Several investigations have studied the possibility of creating mosquito nets whose fibers have powerful insecticides that kill the mosquito before it feeds on a person.

Scientists have determined that to eradicate malaria through this route, it is necessary to know in depth what the habits and forms of behavior of the anopheles mosquito are, in order to identify the best way to eliminate it.

This is where mosquito tracking comes into play. Through this resource, the aim is to document the flight paths of mosquitoes, and how they behave when in contact with certain types of insecticides that are contained in mosquito nets.

What these scientists seek is to create mosquito nets with built-in insecticides that kill mosquitoes before they seek to feed on the person who sleeps under the mosquito net.

The project is called "Mosquito Diary". Josie Parker, a researcher at the Tropical School of Medicine in Liverpool, England, is part of this project and says that the tracking of the flight paths of mosquitoes is carried out through infrared cameras.

This research has great implications worldwide. The World Health Organization indicates that at least half of the world's population is at risk of contracting malaria.

Thought Responsive Prostheses

Can you imagine a prosthesis that responds to thought? A prosthesis that moves in response to the desire to move it? This prosthesis exists and has come to revolutionize the world of replacement appliances.

It is a technology that can be applied to prosthetic arms that detect the commands of the nerves of the spinal cord and allow the user to move it just by imagining that they are moving their arm.

Previous technologies meant that prostheses were only able to respond to the commands of the bits of muscle that survived the amputation. The movements generated from these commands are quite simple and allow little maneuverability.

However, the most relevant advantage of the new technology is that the commands are dictated by the spinal cord, which automatically allows much more possibilities of movement, greater reach and, therefore, greater independence from the user.

This study is led by Dario Farina, a scientist from Imperial College London, who is committed to a prosthesis with greater capabilities and with much more intuitive functionalities.

This technology is not yet on the market; however, it is expected that in the next two years small operational details will be resolved and this robotic arm may be available to anyone who needs it.

The expectations before this technology are high, since it will greatly expand the movements that users can perform, who will be able to move the fingers, the wrist, even the elbow. It is an experience very close to having a real arm.

Neardentants mixed with Homo sapiens

What happened to the Neanderthal man, the race that populated Europe and the Middle East? It is believed that the Neanderthals did not adapt to the environment as well as Homo sapiens. Perhaps it influenced that they did not develop a communication system or that they could not collaborate in a group.

Neanderthals weren't like us: they were slightly smaller and bulkier than our ancestors of the time, Cro-Magnon man.

Neanderthals named after a skeleton found in a cave in Germany's Neander Valley in 1856 were heavy-looking and strong, with sloping foreheads and probably very hairy.

About 500,000 years ago, the first humans left Africa for Europe and Asia. Their travels brought them direct contact with Neanderthals.

What happened when the two remote branches of humanity met? According to the evidence, they had sexual intercourse, resulting in non-African humans currently having between 2% and 6% Neanderthal genomes.

These relationships not only caused the mixing of genes, but also, the Neanderthal transmitted to humans the variant A of HPV16, a type of papilloma that exists that can cause tumors.

On the other hand, this virus was not transmitted to humans in Africa because the Neanderthals never reached this continent.

Scientific popularization articles on animals

The articles of scientific popularization of animals deal with scientific concepts or new discoveries with a language directed to the general public, without too many technicalities or specific terms of the scientific field.

Why can't monkeys speak like humans?

Although we share 96% of genetic information, making us the two closest species in the animal world, monkeys cannot speak like humans. Why?

At the beginning of the investigations, it was thought that there were two possible answers for this fact: one had to do with the vocal disability (related to the little or no development of the vocal apparatus), of non-human primates, preventing them from emitting words; while the other assumption was based on that, rather, it was a neuronal inconvenience.

In fact, one of the first theorists to study the subject in depth was Charles Darwin who inferred that this disability was due to a problem in the brain. And apparently he was right.

The study

For several years, the main reason monkeys were thought to be unable to speak had to do with vocal disability. However, it was discovered that among them, monkeys and chimpanzees; they do make sounds as a way to communicate with each other.

This was one of the main reasons why studies on the matter were deepened, and one of the best known is the one carried out by the neuroscientist, Asif Ghazanfar of Princeton University and by the biologist of the University of Vienna, William Tecumseh Fitch III.

Both concluded that perhaps the reason was linked to Darwin's approach, so they trained Emiliano, a macaque that became the main piece of the study, as his movements were captured by x-rays while he ate, yawned or he performed vocalizations of all kinds.

In the end, more than 90 images of Emiliano's skull and vocal apparatus were obtained, which served as the basis for understanding the functioning of the larynx, tongue and lips.

The material was later sent to the VUB Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in Brussels, to use a series of mechanisms that would allow the collection of the configurations of the movements made by the macaque.

From there, plus the use of programs for the simulation of air vibrations as well as the pronunciation of consonants and vowels, an important discovery was found: primates do have the vocal apparatus for the emission of words.

The results

The simulation program allowed to obtain the following sentence: "Will you marry me?". Although the sound was simple and at first a bit difficult to understand, it indicated that primates certainly had the ability to speak. In this way, the physical problem was ruled out.

On the other hand, the experiment yielded more enlightening information on the evolution of primates and humans. If monkeys have the physical structure to speak, it means that they have been there since the evolutionary process.

So, at some point, our ancestors ended up limiting themselves to develop the brain and linguistic capacity that characterizes our communications today.

It became more apparent that the reason monkeys cannot speak is due to neural complexity. In the absence of it, the brain of this species is unable to process linguistic codes or the ability to perform the operations and combinations that are needed for speech.

Mansourasaurus shahinae: the new species of dinosaur discovered in Egypt

The Mesozoic Era is a time in history that still continues to answer questions about Earth's past. With the discovery of the dinosaurs, there is a clearer picture of what happened 66 million years ago.

His studies began during the 70s of the last century and it was there when theories were raised regarding the life and disappearance of the most imposing beings that populated the Earth, during that point in history. And, although significant progress has been made, there are still gaps in the chronology.

For example, Africa, although it is considered one of the most fascinating places to understand the genesis and development of the human species, was still a blank sheet in terms of the evolution of these particular beings.

However, there was a discovery that clarifies the situation a bit more: the discovery in the Sahara desert of a new species of these animals, the Mansourausaurus shahinae.

An important species

The Cretaceous period gave rise to the evolution of several species that still preserve the characteristics of their predecessors such as crocodiles, sharks, marsupials and placentals.

Also, the so-called titanosaurs, a colossal-sized set of dinosaurs, whose fossils have been found in the southern cone and part of Europe, were also present.

In view of this panorama, Africa remained an unknown for paleontologists until a group of scientists from the University of Mansoura, led by the Egyptian geologist, Hesham Sallam, found the remains of a new species of dinosaur: the Mansourasaurus shahinae.

This large, long-necked herbivore shares anatomical characteristics with other titanosaurs such as Argentinosaurus and Pataotitan mayorum, found in the south of the American continent.

The scientists also found some other specifications of the Mansourasaurus: it is similar in size to a medium bus and its weight, it is estimated, is that of an adult elephant. In addition, its location during the Cretaceous, especially in Africa, allows us to understand the development of these species before the great extinction.

As Eric Gorscak, an American research scientist, would put it:

“M. shahinae is a key new dinosaur species and critical discovery for Egyptian and African paleontology (…) Africa remains a question mark in terms of land animals from the age of dinosaurs. Mansourasaurus helps us address questions about the fossil record and paleobiology on the continent ”.

The horizon clears

One of the main problems for which evidence on dinosaurs was not found in Africa was the presence of lush and populated vegetation in some areas of interest for research, as opposed to rocky areas such as in the Gobi desert in Asia, or like Patagonia in Argentina.

With the discovery of the Mansourasaurus, it will be possible to know the ancient configuration of the Earth before the separation of the Pangea. Likewise, research will be further promoted to discover how isolated these animals were, what are their connections with species in Europe and when they began their own path towards evolution.

Are chimpanzees so different from humans?

We are not the only animals involved in warfare, politics, and medical research. Chimpanzees have been recognized for doing this too. In fact, humans and chimpanzees share 98% of genes.

After 30 years of observing chimpanzees in Tanzania, scientist Jane Goodall witnessed how two rival groups of chimpanzees systematically stalked and killed each other.

What astonished him most in this conflict, in which more than ten adults and all the youths lost their lives, was the professionalism: warriors carrying out an attack or preparing for an ambush were apparently moving through the forest in single file, hair bristling with fear.

Goodall and his colleagues have observed surprising features of chimpanzee behavior:

Clothing. They have learned to use the twigs as "sandals" to protect their feet from thorns.
Psychology. A chimpanzee named Faben had a brother named Figan. When Faben disappeared, Figan began to mimic his missing brother's behavior and body language to persuade others that their personalities were alike. Faben got the leadership of his group and sustained it for ten years.
Medicine. Some chimpanzees swallow the leaves of Aspilia, a plant that relieves stomach pain and kills internal parasites.
Manufacture of tools. They trim blades of thick grass and tuck them into termite nests to fool the insects.
Fear and amazement. They perform a ritual dance in front of a high waterfall, apparently displaying emotions.
Be unpleasant. A chimpanzee named Frodo kicked a reporter, grabbed him by the ankle and threw him to the ground.

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10 EXAMPLES OF POPULAR SCIENCE ARTICLES - SCIENCE - 2025