All Stories

Chemistry

Explainer: What is a metal?

Metals can bend and pull without snapping, and conduct electricity. The reason: Their atoms tend to lose electrons to neighboring atoms.

Materials Science

Analyze This: This material for 3-D printing is made by microbes

Bacteria with tweaked genes pump out proteins that can be used in a 3-D printer. With microbes in the mix, the living ink can make drugs or suck up chemicals.

Chemistry

Could reusable ‘jelly ice’ cubes replace regular ice?

These hydrogel “jelly ice cubes” are made mostly of gelatin and water. They won’t melt, even when thawed, and may provide new food cooling options.

Chemistry

Scientists Say: Silicon

The chemical element silicon is used to make everything from bricks to cookware to electronics.

Psychology

To excel at basketball, it’s mind over matter

Get your head in the game. Top basketball coaches value psychological traits more than physical ones when recruiting players, says a new study.

Animals

Explainer: What is an invasive species?

These foreign organisms hitchhike, spread widely and stir up trouble in native ecosystems.

Animals

Rewilding returns lost species to strengthen ecosystems

Restoring the missing species can help undo human-caused problems by aiding forests, slowing climate change and reducing wildfires.

Animals

Scientists discover the first true millipede

The newfound deep-living species tunnels belowground using a whopping 1,306 legs!

Animals

Let’s learn about snot

For humans, snot plays a key role in fighting off diseases. Other animals have found different uses for the slimy stuff.

Climate

Climate change is upping the height of Earth’s lower atmosphere

The upper edge of the troposphere, the slice of sky closest to the ground, rose 50 to 60 meters (165 to 200 feet) a decade from 1980 to 2020.

Space

Scientists Say: Solar wind

This is a powerful gust of charged particles that flows out from the sun through the solar system.