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Health & Medicine

9 things to know about lead’s health risks — and how to curb them

Lead has been linked to lower IQ, behavior problems, mental-health disorders, strokes and more health impacts. There are ways to reduce your exposure.

Animals

Experiment: Are we there yet? Test how migratory birds navigate

In this experiment, use real data to figure out how migratory birds navigate from their breeding grounds to their wintering grounds.

Microbes

Let’s learn about useful bacteria

Bacteria do many useful jobs almost everywhere on Earth, from the soil to the seafloor to our stomachs.

Health & Medicine

Family, friends and community inspired these high school scientists

When looking for research ideas, listen to the people around you. What problems are they facing? What could you do to help?

Animals

Scientists still aren’t always sure why dogs wag their tails

Your dog is wagging its tail. That must mean it’s happy, right? Maybe not. Scientists know less about what’s behind this behavior than you might think.

Brain

Scientists Say: Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out and believe information that agrees with what we already think.

Plants

To spy this palm’s blooms and fruits, start digging underground

Plants across 33 families are known for subterranean flowering or fruiting. But this palm is extremely rare. It does both.

Earth

Get ready for the 2024 total solar eclipse

A total solar eclipse will race across North America on April 8, 2024, providing a rare opportunity for both scientists and casual observers.

Environment

Bottled water hosts many thousands of nano-sized plastic bits

The finding emerges from tests of a new tool that identified smaller-than-ever tiny plastic bits in three brands of bottled water.

Physics

Here’s why blueberries aren’t blue — but appear to be

Blueberries actually have dark red pigments — no blue ones — in their skin. Tiny structures in the fruits’ waxy coat are what make them seem blue.

Animals

Here’s why thousands of octopuses gather at the ‘Octopus Garden’

Underwater cameras and other instruments investigated why so many pearl octopuses gather here to mate and nest.

Science & Society

Scientists Say: Model

Models are representations of real-life systems or processes that we use to ask questions, make predictions and test our knowledge.