All Stories
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Health & Medicine
Cool Jobs: Saliva offers a spitting image of our health
Scientists are using this secretion to study our body’s functions, to test for disease and even to diagnose injury.
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Space
Raindrops on alien worlds will obey Earth-like rules
Their size will be similar no matter what they’re made of or on which planet they fall, a new analysis finds.
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Life
Let’s learn about dogs
From learning the names of their toys to sniffing out viruses in human sweat, dogs are far more than household pets.
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Physics
Staying grounded in space requires artificial gravity
On TV, people in space walk around like they’re on Earth. How can science give real astronauts artificial gravity? Spin right round, baby.
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Chemistry
Scientists Say: Alkaline
Alkaline chemicals are basic — substances that produce hydroxide ions in solution.
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Planets
Scientists discover likely source of the moon’s faint yellow tail
These sodium atoms are part of the debris kicked up from the moon’s surface, mostly by micrometeorites, two new studies conclude.
By Sid Perkins -
A sea slug’s head can crawl around and grow a whole new body
Some chopped-up flatworms can regrow whole bodies from bits and pieces. But a sea slug head can regrow fancier organs such as hearts.
By Susan Milius -
Chemistry
New recycling technologies could keep more plastic out of landfills
Recycling plastics is really hard — especially into useful materials. But new chemical tricks could make recycling easier.
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Chemistry
Explainer: What are chemical bonds?
When various particles, atoms, ions or molecules come together to form a substance, they are held together with chemical bonds.
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Space
Here’s why people picked certain stars as constellations
Patterns of human eye movement help explain why particular sets of stars form iconic shapes, a high school student showed.
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Chemistry
Level up your demonstration: Make it an experiment
What’s the difference between a demonstration and an experiment? Questions, measurements and many, many replications.
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Brain
Patterns in brain activity can identify who will struggle to read
Certain patterns of brain activity predict whether teens are strong readers or will struggle. Those diagnostic patterns show up even when doing math.