All Stories
- Fossils
How scientists can get a better picture of our extinct relatives
Facial reconstructions of extinct species have historically been more art than science. Some researchers hope to change that.
- Brain
Let’s learn about touch
Most senses are concentrated around your head. But touch all over your body, and you need every inch.
- Agriculture
New technologies might help keep drought-prone farms green
After learning how much damage drought can do to crops, two teens designed ways to detect a thirsty plant and make sure it gets enough water.
- Planets
The Perseverance rover split CO2 on Mars to make breathable air
This oxygen-making experiment shows that astronauts could one day make air to breathe and to help fuel their ride back home.
- Climate
Local glacier could be gone in a decade, young scientist finds
A teen calculated the volume of a glacier by drilling into it with jets of steam — then used that to estimate how long before all its ice will be gone.
- Plants
Scientists Say: Pollen
Pollen is a mass of tiny reproductive cells. These grains combine with egg cells to form seeds — but on the way, they can make some people miserable.
- Computing
Will this smartphone app become your exercise coach?
When one teen couldn’t go to the gym, she invented an app to bring her gymnastics coach to her home. She succeeded and won a major award for it.
- Life
No animal died to make this steak
The ribeye steak is the first of its kind, and the latest in a growing list of meats printed with a 3-D bioprinter instead of being harvested from an animal.
- Health & Medicine
New robots can clean virus-laden surfaces so people won’t have to
Smart and nimble cleaning robots will soon help disinfect spaces. They twist and bend to hit hard-to-reach spaces with UV light or cleansing sprays.
- Archaeology
Europe’s ancient humans often hooked up with Neandertals
DNA from ancient bones shows humans and Neandertals were regularly mixing genes by about 45,000 years ago.
- Earth
Here’s how lightning may help clean the air
Airplane observations show that storm clouds can generate huge quantities of air-cleansing chemicals known as oxidants.
- Animals
Analyze This: Invasive species cost the world billions each year
A new study estimates that invasive species have cost the world more than $1 trillion since 1970. That’s almost certainly an underestimate.
