All Stories by Alison Pearce Stevens
- Animals
Scientists Say: Kleptotrichy
Based on the Greek words for theft and hair, kleptotrichy is a more common bird behavior than people thought.
- Animals
Analyze This: Some bats feast on songbirds midflight
Sensor data reveal greater noctule bats chasing, catching and chewing on birds during nighttime hunts.
- Earth
Cities across the world are sinking. Here’s how they might rebound
Affected coastal cities tend to flood more often — a growing threat in this era of continuing sea level rise.
- Health & Medicine
Short exercise workouts can boost classroom performance
When students spend just nine minutes doing high-intensity interval exercises, their brains can work more efficiently, new data show.
- Health & Medicine
Sleeping in — but not too much — may ease anxiety
Getting up to two hours of weekend catch-up sleep lowers anxiety in teens, new research shows.
- Plants
Pollinators send out good vibrations — and plants respond sweetly
Snapdragon blooms can distinguish between the sounds of pollinators and thieves. They boost or drop the sugar in their nectar depending who’s arriving.
- Plants
Scientists Say: Circumnutation
Plants are always on the move, their tips slowly waving in search of better light — a process called circumnutation.
- Materials Science
Orange food dye can temporarily turn skin transparent
When mixed with water and rubbed on the skin, a common food dye allows researchers to peer inside the body of a mouse.
- Earth
Scientists Say: Lava bomb
An explosive volcanic eruption can shoot a blob of lava into the air. As that blob travels, it cools, creating a dangerous lava bomb.
- Animals
Meet some of the longest-lived animals
Think a 100-year-old person is old? Not compared to the world’s longest-lived animals — some of which have lifespans of thousands of years.
- Earth
Scientists Say: Frost Quake
When wet soil abruptly freezes, it creates high pressure underground. When the pressure releases, it can trigger a mini-earthquake called a frost quake.
- Physics
Shark intestines inspire pipes with a strictly one-way flow
The pipes contain a twisty coil that lets liquids flow in one direction but not the other.
