Building a Science News Scraper with Python & Raspberry Pi

Ever wished for a clean, distraction-free overview of all the latest science news in one place? No ads, no tracking, just pure content. That’s exactly what I wanted too — so I built it.

Today, I’m introducing Emphyrio.io Science News Scraper:
A lightweight Python-powered web app that runs on a Raspberry Pi and gives you a beautiful, searchable, filterable feed of science articles, aggregated from your favorite RSS sources.

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⚡ What It Does

🧠 Scrapes multiple English science news feeds
🔍 Full-text search across all pages
📡 Filter by feed source
❤️ Save favorites for later
🌗 Built-in dark mode
💻 Responsive, mobile-ready UI
💾 Built with SQLite (zero setup)
🖥️ Designed to run 24/7 on a Raspberry Pi 4B

🛠️ Tech Behind It

Python 3 + Flask — simple, fast, and familiar
Feedparser — for parsing RSS feeds
TailwindCSS + Lucide Icons — for a modern look
SQLite — small, robust, perfect for Pi
Jinja2 — for clean templating
Systemd (optional) — to auto-start on boot

Here’s a quick peek at the UI:

🧰 How to Use It

Clone it, install the dependencies, and launch:

git clone https://github.com/emphyri0/sciencenewsscraper
cd emphyrio-science-scraper
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python app.py

Then visit http://your-pi-ip:5000 in your browser. Done.

📥 Adding RSS Feeds

Just click the 📡 icon in the header. You can:

Add new feed URLs
Give them custom names
Toggle them on/off
Remove them anytime

If you want a science-first, minimal, private reading experience — give it a go.
Let me know what you’d add to it. PRs are welcome. This is just the start.

Stay curious,
— emphyrio.io

emphyrio.io