MS-PS2-2
Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object's motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.
- Animals
Orb-weaving spiders use their webs like external eardrums
Scientists discover that orb-weaving spiders listen with their legs, detecting sound vibrations that travel through their silken webs.
- Space
Explainer: All about orbits
A handful of rules can describe the route some object repeatedly takes around another in space. Calculating that path, however, can be quite complex.
- Physics
Explainer: The fundamental forces
Four fundamental forces control all interactions between matter, from the smallest subatomic particles to the largest structures in the universe.
- Tech
Robots made of cells blur the line between creature and machine
Scientists are using living cells and tissue as building blocks to make robots. These new machines challenge ideas about robots and life itself.
- Tech
A new device uses atoms’ quantum weirdness to peer underground
Quantum sensors like this one could monitor magma beneath volcanoes or uncover archaeological artifacts.
- Physics
Explainer: Gravity and microgravity
The force of gravity holds us on the ground, keeps planets in orbit and extends throughout space. A very weak gravitational pull is called microgravity.
- Earth
Volcanic avalanches may be more destructive than previously thought
Pressures within these pyroclastic flows may be as much as three times as high as observations had suggested.
- Physics
Here’s why ducklings swim in a row behind mom
Baby ducks save energy by surfing their mother’s waves, but only if they do it in an orderly line.
- Physics
Scientists Say: Mass
Mass shows how much an object resists speeding up or slowing down when force is applied — a measure of how much matter is in it.
- Tech
Mantis shrimp inspires somersaults of new soft robot
Its rolling acrobatics allow this robot to move especially swiftly — much as a fictional new Disney character can.
- Physics
Why big nuts always rise to the top
X-rays scans of a box of mixed nuts now reveal why large Brazil nuts rise to the top.
- Physics
Light levitation might help explore Earth’s ‘ignorosphere’
A toy called a light mill inspired researchers to invent a new way to fly. They’re using light to levitate small nanotube-coated discs.
