All Stories
- Brain
IQ is in the genes
Previous research that suggested parenting affects a child’s IQ is flawed, researchers now conclude.
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A Lego box to study drug addiction
Most students learn that drugs are bad for you, but many try them anyway. A high school student has tried to find a new way to teach teens about addiction. His tool is made from Legos.
- Animals
Scientists seek bat detectives
Bats emit high-pitched calls in the night to find their way around. A citizen science project is eavesdropping on these calls to probe the health of ecosystems.
- Health & Medicine
The secret of fast runners: symmetry
Science had shown that animals and people with symmetrical bodies tend to be stronger and healthier. Now researchers find they can predict the best sprinters by measuring the top runners’ knees.
- Tech
Wind power is looking up — to the clouds
Placing wind turbines high in the sky could let them harvest power from the faster, more reliable winds found at altitude.
- Climate
Lightning strikes will surge with climate change
Warming temperatures will lead to 50 percent more lightning strikes across the 48 U.S. states in the next century, researchers report. That increase could lead to more warming, more fires and even more deaths.
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A do-it-yourself map of touch
Some parts of our bodies are more sensitive than others. In the brain, regions that respond to your fingertips, for instance, take up more space than those linked to your legs. A website helps you visualize this with a simple test.
- Earth
Artificial sweeteners pollute streams
Fake sugars sweeten foods without adding calories. But most pass right through the body, down the toilet, into water treatment plants — and from there, right into lakes and streams.
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Cookie Science 9: How data can spread
Two people often will rank things (such as a cookie’s taste) differently. The spread — or how broadly the rankings differ — helps me understand how one test condition compares to the others.
- Physics
New particle may help probe strongest force in the universe
A newfound subatomic particle should allow scientists to better understand the strong force that holds together the nucleus of every atom.
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Cookie Science 8: The meaning of the mean
I have had people eat cookies and fill out surveys. What do I do with all those numbers? First I have to find something called the arithmetic mean.
- Animals
Ancient jellyfish died a strange death
Scientists have probed the fossilized remains of an ancient jellyfish. It reveals a bizarre sequence of events that led to its preservation 310 million years ago.
