All Stories
- Life
Some pikas survive winter by eating yak poop
Pikas endure bone-chilling cold on the Tibetan Plateau by using little energy and fueling up on yak poop.
- Environment
Wildfire smoke seeds the air with potentially dangerous microbes
Studies now show that most wildfires don’t kill microbes. That’s fueling worries about what risks these smoke hitchhikers might pose to people.
By Megan Sever - Physics
Take a look at this weird, bendy type of ice
These specially grown threads of ice bend into curves, then spring back when released.
- Animals
Analyze This: Sharks aren’t as scary as what you see on TV
In Shark Week shows, scientists found mixed messages about sharks, insufficient research support and little info on conserving endangered animals.
- Tech
Let’s learn about artificial intelligence
Computers are getting smarter all the time. At some tasks, they can even outsmart people.
- Health & Medicine
Kids lost more than learning when COVID closed their schools
The first 18 months of the pandemic has already taken a hefty academic and emotional toll on students, new research shows.
- Space
This image may be the first look at exomoons in the making
These observations offer some of the best evidence yet that planets around other stars have moons, or exomoons.
- Chemistry
Scientists Say: Oxidation and Reduction
Oxidation and reduction are two parts of a chemical process in which one atom steals electrons from another.
- Tech
Headphones or earmuffs could replace needles in some disease testing
A new system that uses earmuffs to collect gases coming out the skin could help doctors diagnose a variety of diseases, scientists say.
By Sid Perkins - Animals
Endangered or just rare? Statistics give meaning to the head counts
Whether studying tiny birds or massive whales, researchers collect a lot of data. The field of statistics helps them make sense of those data.
- Microbes
Explainer: Virus variants and strains
When viruses become more infectious or better able to survive the body’s immune system, they become a type of variant known as a strain.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Millions of kids have missed routine vaccines thanks to COVID-19
The missed shots brought vaccination rates for measles, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis to their lowest levels in over a decade.