All Stories

Animals

Snakes go dark to soak in the sun

Snakes are paler in the South and darker in the North. The darker species absorb heat more quickly, a teen showed.

Chemistry

Nanowires could lead to super-long-lived battery

Scientists have long been looking for ways to make rechargeable batteries that last forever. They now may be close. Their solution: gel-dipped nanowires.

Animals

Dragons sleep like mammals and birds

Lizards seem to alternate between two sleep states, just as mammals and birds do. This finding could change our understanding of how sleep evolved.

Animals

Scientists Say: Copepod

Copepods are tiny crustaceans. They eat phytoplankton and float in the water column, although some live in freshwater and on the sea floor.

Brain

A ‘cocktail’ in the brain can trigger sleep

A new study finds that a ‘cocktail’ of chemicals in the brain can directly cause mice to fall asleep or waken.

Health & Medicine

Teens take home huge awards for their research

Top three prizes — adding up to $175,000 — are a small fraction of the approximately $4 million just handed out at the 2016 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

Health & Medicine

Injured leg? Here’s a built-in footstool

Sometimes doctors advise people to keep a leg elevated, but there’s no footstool to rest it on. A teen designed a brace with a built-in kickstand.

Computing

New device identifies money by its color

Two teens have invented a gadget that can help the blind identify the value of a banknote based on its color.

Earth

Cool Jobs: Getting to know volcanoes

It’s too hot to explore the insides of a volcano. These scientists examine their lava, their low-frequency rumblings and their ‘vog’.

Brain

Eyes offer new window into Alzheimer’s disease

The eye’s retina is distinctly different in people with Alzheimer’s disease compared to those with no signs of the malady, two teens now report finding. It could lead to earlier diagnosis of the brain disease.