Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
- Animals
Analyze This: Electric eels’ zaps are more powerful than a TASER
Shocking! A biologist reached his hand into a fish tank and let an electric eel zap him. It let him measure precisely how strong a current it could unleash to defend itself.
- Health & Medicine
Analyze This: Flu vaccine’s protection varies
Getting a flu shot every year is an important way to protect yourself and those around you — even if the vaccine isn’t 100 percent effective.
- Plants
Explainer: The fertilizing power of N and P
Two elements — nitrogen and phosphorus — help plants grow. When the soil doesn’t have them, farmers might add them in the form of fertilizer.
- Physics
Disabilities don’t stop these experts in science and tech
People with disabilities are as varied as the careers some of them pursue in science, technology, engineering and math.
- Genetics
Explainer: How CRISPR works
Scientists are using a tool called CRISPR to edit DNA in all types of cells.
- Health & Medicine
Explainer: What is a vaccine?
Vaccines give the body’s natural defense system a boost against infectious disease.
- Animals
Listening to fish love songs can predict their numbers
Gulf corvinas croak for mates while in groups of millions. By listening to their undersea serenades, scientists may be able to estimate how many are out there.
- Animals
Bee hotels are open for business
Bee hotels are creating a buzz in conservation and research by offering nesting places for wild bees.
- Health & Medicine
Hunting the mysterious source of a global illness
Doctors and scientists around the world are scouring the environment for the elusive cause of Kawasaki disease, a harmful childhood illness.
- Animals
Beware the tap of the narwhal’s tusk
A new video shows narwhals using their tusks to tap fish before eating them. They might be stunning their prey — or just playing with their food.
- Ecosystems
Camera catches new fish species — as it’s eaten!
A video of a lionfish eating a new-found species of fish raises concerns about the threat lionfish pose to undiscovered species in deep reefs.
- Environment
Trees can make summer ozone levels much worse
The greenery can release chemicals into the air that react with combustion pollutants to make ozone. And trees release more of those chemicals where it gets really hot, a new study finds.
