All Stories by Maria Temming
- Materials Science
Let’s learn about glass
Unlike the atoms in other solids, the atoms in glass don’t exist in an orderly crystal structure. They’re more jumbled up, like the atoms inside liquids.
- Microbes
Scientists Say: Bacteria
Bacteria get a bad rap for making people sick, but only a tiny portion of these single-celled creatures cause disease.
- Chemistry
Scientists Say: Silicon
The chemical element silicon is used to make everything from bricks to cookware to electronics.
- Health & Medicine
Let’s learn about snot
For humans, snot plays a key role in fighting off diseases. Other animals have found different uses for the slimy stuff.
- Space
Scientists Say: Solar wind
This is a powerful gust of charged particles that flows out from the sun through the solar system.
- Animals
Let’s learn about chimpanzees and bonobos
Humankind’s closest cousins in the animal kingdom may look similar, but in terms of behavior, they’re polar opposites.
- Materials Science
This glitter gets its color from plants, not a synthetic plastic
In the new material, tiny arrangements of cellulose reflect light in specific ways to create vibrant hues in an environmentally friendly glitter.
- Life
Scientists Say: Adaptation
This word refers to a feature of a living thing that helps it better survive in its environment — or the process of that feature evolving in a population.
- Earth
Scientists Say: Savanna
Savannas exist where there is more rainfall than in a desert, but less than in a forest.
- Space
Let’s learn about the hunt for alien life
Finding any extraterrestrials, from advanced alien civilizations to simple microbes, would be an unmatched discovery.
- Life
Scientists Say: Experiment
An experiment is a set of procedures to learn about the world — and an important part of the scientific process.
- Earth
Scientists Say: Avalanche
The word avalanche usually refers to a huge snowslide down a mountain, but it can also be used to describe any large mass of material tumbling downhill.
