Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
- Animals
Orcas can take down the largest animal on the planet
For the first time, scientists observed that orcas can kill blue whales by using the same hunting techniques that have worked on other large whales.
- Science & Society
Explainer: What is an endangered species?
Threats such as climate change and habitat loss can put species at risk of going extinct. Different words describe that risk.
- Environment
More than 9,000 tree species may be waiting to be discovered
Scientists estimated how many tree species are on Earth, an important step for forest conservation and protecting biodiversity.
- Animals
Bees and butterflies struggle to find flowers in polluted air
Emissions from cars and trucks make it harder for insects to find flowers. That in turn reduces flower visits and pollination, a new study finds.
- Earth
Widely used pesticides may threaten Earth’s ozone layer
Data show a major class of long-used “eco-friendly” copper chemicals unexpectedly react with soil, making gases harmful to Earth’s protective ozone layer.
- Animals
See the world through a jumping spider’s eyes — and other senses
Scientists are teasing out the many ways the spiders’ vision, listening and taste senses differ from ours
- Animals
Goldfish driving ‘cars’ offer new insight into navigation
Fishes’ internal sense of direction is not limited to their natural environment. The latest Wild Things cartoon from Science News for Students.
- Brain
Addiction can develop when reward-seeking changes a teen’s brain
Over time, the pleasure disappears and craving grows. That craving causes stress that can drive people to use drugs or pursue unhealthy behaviors again and again.
- Chemistry
Scientists Say: Decay
This word can refer to rotting flesh or the transformation of radioactive atoms.
- Animals
Living mysteries: Why teeny-weeny tardigrades are tough as nails
Tardigrades often live in cool, damp moss. Their cushy life has somehow prepared them to survive the lethal radiation of outer space.
- Animals
World’s biggest colony of nesting fish lives beneath Antarctic ice
Totally unexpected, it’s far, far larger than any other known community of nesting fish — fully one-third larger than the area of Washington, D.C.
- Ecosystems
Recycling a climate-warming gas could make ‘greener’ farmed fish
Instead of warming the climate, methane gas can be collected to help farmers. Along the way, it may also save some fish.
