All Stories

  1. Health & Medicine

    Simpler, easier COVID-19 test developed with kids in mind

    Designed by moms, it avoids any need to stick an uncomfortable swab up the nose. Instead, people just swish a dental roll around their mouths.

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  2. Chemistry

    Cool Jobs: Saliva offers a spitting image of our health

    Scientists are using this secretion to study our body’s functions, to test for disease and even to diagnose injury.

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  3. Physics

    Raindrops on alien worlds will obey Earth-like rules

    Their size will be similar no matter what they’re made of or on which planet they fall, a new analysis finds.

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  4. Animals

    Let’s learn about dogs

    From learning the names of their toys to sniffing out viruses in human sweat, dogs are far more than household pets.

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  5. Physics

    Staying grounded in space requires artificial gravity

    On TV, people in space walk around like they’re on Earth. How can science give real astronauts artificial gravity? Spin right round, baby.

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  6. Chemistry

    Scientists Say: Alkaline

    Alkaline chemicals are basic — substances that produce hydroxide ions in solution.

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  7. Physics

    Scientists discover likely source of the moon’s faint yellow tail

    These sodium atoms are part of the debris kicked up from the moon’s surface, mostly by micrometeorites, two new studies conclude.

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  8. A sea slug’s head can crawl around and grow a whole new body

    Some chopped-up flatworms can regrow whole bodies from bits and pieces. But a sea slug head can regrow fancier organs such as hearts.

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  9. Chemistry

    New recycling technologies could keep more plastic out of landfills

    Recycling plastics is really hard — especially into useful materials. But new chemical tricks could make recycling easier.

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  10. Chemistry

    Explainer: What are chemical bonds?

    When various particles, atoms, ions or molecules come together to form a substance, they are held together with chemical bonds.

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  11. Science & Society

    Here’s why people picked certain stars as constellations

    Patterns of human eye movement help explain why particular sets of stars form iconic shapes, a high school student showed.

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  12. Chemistry

    Level up your demonstration: Make it an experiment

    What’s the difference between a demonstration and an experiment? Questions, measurements and many, many replications.

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