All Stories
- Animals
Life on Earth is mostly green
A new survey of life on Earth finds that plants and microbes dominate. But even though humans are in the minority, they still play a major role.
- Life
Explainer: Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes
Prokaryotes tend to be small and simple, while eukaryotes have embraced a highly organized lifestyle. These divergent approaches to life have both proved very successful.
- Animals
Could an elephant ever fly?
Dumbo is known as the only elephant to take flight. He’s not real. But could he be?
- Physics
Explainer: What are black holes?
Among the most extreme celestial bodies in the universe, black holes are dense, massive entities whose gravity can sometimes hold together an entire galaxy.
- Health & Medicine
Teens who play violent video games aren’t any more violent
A careful new study shows that teens who play violent video games are no more aggressive than other teens.
- Chemistry
Smartphone app helps researchers track art ‘acne’
Metal soaps can form damaging blisters on the surface of oil paintings. Scientists are tracking these “breakouts” to protect priceless art.
- Climate
Thunderstorms hold stunningly high voltage
By studying particles called muons, scientists found that the electric potential inside a thunderstorm may be 10 times higher than previously thought.
- Earth
Scientists Say: Geyser
Geysers are underground springs with vents to the surface. When the water gets heated from nearby magma, the geyser blows.
- Fossils
Mini tyrannosaur fills big evolutionary gap
A newfound dinosaur named “omen of doom” fills a gap in tyrannosaur evolution. It helps to narrow when the group sized up.
- Brain
What part of us knows right from wrong?
Our conscience may have evolved from our need to cooperate. Scientists are learning where the brain’s moral centers are, and how they make us human.
- Health & Medicine
Fevers can have some cool benefits
Fever boosts the immune system by zipping germ-busting cells to the site of an infection, new data show.
- Chemistry
Ham bone broth could be a tonic for the heart
Health and fitness websites claim that drinking bone broth is a miracle cure. Here’s what some new research has to say about that.
