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Plants

Yum! Flies swarm to a flower that smells like wounded ants

A type of Japanese dogsbane emits the distress signal of injured ants — a particular scent — to draw in scavenging flies that end up pollinating its flowers.

Psychology

Everyone experiences malicious joy now and then

Called schadenfreude, feeling happy when we see someone else’s pain is typically harmless. But unchecked, it can have big consequences.

Artificial Intelligence

Chatbots may make learning feel easy — but it’s shallow

People who use search engines gain deeper knowledge and care more about what they learn than those who rely on AI chatbots, a new study finds.

Animals

Is it possible to be invisible?

Fiction is full of characters with the power to vanish. But some animals have real-life ways to become nearly invisible.

Microbes

Let’s learn about viruses

Viruses cause a huge range of illnesses, but vaccines can help protect you against these infections.

Animals

RNA from mummified woolly mammoth is the oldest ever recovered

Genetic details from the animal, named Yuka, give a snapshot into its last moments alive. The mammoth had been preserved in permafrost for 40,000 years.

Earth

Scientists Say: Haboob

Thunderstorms in the desert create downdrafts that lift desert sand into a moving, wall-like cloud.

Physics

Energy may seem to disappear, but there’s a law against that

When a ball rolls to stop or a phone battery dies, it’s energy didn't vanish — it just morphed to another form. Energy is always conserved.

Animals

Radioactive animals don’t glow — but do show the power of radiation

Wild species exposed to nuclear contamination help show how radiation affects living things — including its risks to people.

Environment

Nuclear weapons tests many decades ago have left a radioactive legacy

Decades of aboveground nuclear weapons tests, starting in the 1950s, lightly littered the planet with toxic fallout, which appears to have sickened some people.

Materials Science

‘Stenciling’ tiny gold particles gives them new properties

Decorating nanoparticles with other chemicals could give them useful properties for medicines, textiles and more.

Fossils

Here’s why ammolite gems have a rainbow shimmer

The fossils’ fabulous colors arise from delicate assemblies of crystal plates.