All Stories
- Climate
Explainer: What is decarbonization?
Lowering carbon levels in our atmosphere to stabilize the climate may start with switching from fossil fuels to greener energy sources.
- Chemistry
Explainer: All about carbon dioxide
Animals and other life on Earth exhale carbon dioxide, which plants use for photosynthesis. But too much of this gas can perturb Earth’s climate.
- Archaeology
Neandertals were a lot like our human ancestors
From toolmaking to healthcare, new research finds that Neandertals shared many cultural and social similarities with our human ancestors.
- Fossils
Armored dinos may have used tail clubs to bash each other
Broken spikes on a fossil dino’s sides are consistent with the armored beast having received a mighty blow from another ankylosaur’s tail club.
- Science & Society
Let’s learn about why schools should start later
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that middle and high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m.
- Tech
Underwater cameras get a new power source — sound!
Needing no batteries, a new digital camera can run almost continuously to offer new, deeper insights into the ocean world.
- Physics
Scientists Say: Fission
Nuclear fission is the process of splitting atoms apart to release huge amounts of energy.
- Animals
Tiny bumps on polar bear paws help them get traction on snow
Super-small structures on the Arctic animals’ paws might offer extra friction that keeps them from slipping on snow, a new study concludes.
- Physics
Explainer: What is friction?
The force of friction always acts to slow things down. It depends on just two factors: the surfaces and how hard they press together.
- Environment
Microplastic pollution aids viruses and prolongs their infectivity
The tiny plastic bits give these germs safe havens. That protection seems to increase as the plastic ages and breaks into ever smaller pieces.
- Chemistry
Was that fingerprint left during a crime? A new test may answer that
In what could be a boon to forensics, Iowa State University chemists have come up with a way to analyze the age of fingerprints.
- Physics
Explainer: Radiation and radioactive decay
Like clockwork, radioactive forms of some elements shed parts of themselves as they attempt to become nonradioactive.
