All Stories
- Climate
Hurricane Michael slams into Florida, then speeds north
The 2018 hurricane season just brought Michael, another rapidly strengthening hurricane, to the U.S. coast. This one hit land with surprising power.
- Space
Cool Job: Making stellar connections
Astrophysicist Paula Jofré wants to find links between all the stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way.
- Health & Medicine
Here’s what puts teen drivers at greatest risk of a crash
Most teen car crashes trace to distraction and a driver’s inexperience. New studies point to how easily we can be distracted and by which activities.
- Health & Medicine
Analyze This: A good reason to drive with an adult in the car
Teens are much safer drivers during their “learner” stage, when there’s an adult in the car. Once they get a license and begin to drive solo, they exhibit more reckless behaviors.
- Materials Science
Soft robots get their power from the skin they’re in
A flexible electronic “skin” embedded with air pouches or coils can wrap around inanimate objects, turning them into handy robots.
- Chemistry
Don’t flush your contact lenses
One in five people who wear contact lenses flush their used eyewear down the sink or toilet. That plastic pollutes the environment and can harm wildlife.
- Earth
Enormous floating barrier will corral ocean trash
A floating giant barrier has been designed to trap plastic trash in the ocean. But no one’s sure how well it will collect much of the most worrisome type.
- Space
Scientists Say: Yellow dwarf
Yellow dwarf is a term used for a medium-sized star. Our sun is a yellow dwarf.
- Physics
Doctor Who’s TARDIS is bigger on the inside — but how?
The TARDIS looks like a old police box on the outside. But on the inside, it’s got plenty of space. How does that work? It just takes a wormhole and a tesseract or two.
- Health & Medicine
Studies report new risks to teens from secondhand smoke
Teens exposed to secondhand smoke are more vulnerable to getting sick, one study finds. Another suggests that later, in adulthood, these individuals may be at risk for premature death from lung disease.
- Life
Bacteria are all around us — and that’s okay
Scientists may have identified less than one percent of all bacteria on Earth. But there’s a reason to keep up the hunt. These microbes could help us understand and protect our planet.
- Chemistry
Three take home chemistry Nobel for harnessing protein ‘evolution’
New ways to create customized proteins for use in biofuels and medicines earned three researchers the 2018 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
