All Stories
- Animals
Explainer: What are cicadas?
There are more than 3,000 species of cicadas, but the best known in North America are periodical cicadas, which emerge every 13 or 17 years.
- Animals
How bees play telephone to form a swarm
Honeybees use pheromones and flapping wings to tell each other where to find the queen — so they can all be together. Learn more with this web comic.
- Materials Science
Copper ‘foam’ could be used as filters for COVID-19 masks
The lightweight new material could serve as a washable and recyclable, eco-friendly alternative for many current mask filters.
- Psychology
Most people will add something — even when subtracting makes more sense
People default to adding when solving puzzles and problems, even when subtracting works better. That could underlie some modern-day excesses.
- Life
Scientists Say: Genus
A genus is a group of closely related species. It’s the first part of the two-part system called binomial nomenclature, used to name living things.
- Ecosystems
Urchin takeover underlies California’s vanishing kelp forests
Some 95 percent of kelp forests along its northern coast are gone. Meanwhile, sea otters are helping slow the loss of surviving kelp farther south.
- Health & Medicine
Simpler, easier COVID-19 test developed with kids in mind
Designed by moms, it avoids any need to stick an uncomfortable swab up the nose. Instead, people just swish a dental roll around their mouths.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Chemistry
Scientists Say: Alkaline
Alkaline chemicals are basic — substances that produce hydroxide ions in solution.
