HS-LS4-4
Construct an explanation based on evidence for how natural selection leads to adaptation of populations.
- Animals
Analyze This: Hurricanes may help lizards evolve better grips
Lizards have larger toepads in areas that tend to have higher hurricane activity. This suggests high winds select for those that can hang tight.
- Earth
On an Alaskan glacier, little green moss balls roll in herds
Oval balls of moss, nicknamed ‘glacier mice,’ roll across some glaciers. A new study explores the mysteries behind their herd-like motion.
By Beth Geiger - Animals
What you need to know about ‘murder hornets’
Two new specimens of the world’s largest hornet have just turned up in the United States. Here’s what to make of them and other alien-hornet invaders.
By Susan Milius - Fossils
Saber-toothed anchovy relatives were once fearsome hunters
Today’s plankton-eating anchovies sport tiny teeth. But their ancient kin were armed with spiky lower teeth and a giant upper sabertooth.
- Health & Medicine
How to find the next pandemic virus before it finds us
Wild animals carry viruses that can sicken people. Monitoring those viral hosts that pose the greatest risk might help prevent a new pandemic.
- Science & Society
COVID-19: When will it be safe to go out again?
No one yet knows when social distancing can end. Experts explain we need 'herd immunity,' which won't be easy and may come at a horrific cost.
- Genetics
What would it take to make a unicorn?
Onward’s dumpster-diving unicorns seem like an impossibility. But scientists have some ideas about how unicorns could become real.
- Animals
Analyze This: Shimmering colors may help beetles hide
Delve into data showing how brilliant colors that shift as a viewer — or predator — moves may help iridescent insects blend in.
- Animals
The many efforts to lick cat allergies
Up to one in five people around the world may be allergic to cats. Science is coming to help their desire for kitty cuddles.
- Health & Medicine
Immune arms-race in bats may make their viruses deadly to people
An overactive immune system may help bats avoid being sickened by many viruses. This may viruses becoming stronger — and deadlier — when they hit other species.
- Health & Medicine
Your most urgent questions about the new coronavirus
Researchers have more questions than answers right now about 2019-nCoV. They’re racing to understand and stop the coronavirus and the health crisis it poses.
- Fossils
Small T. rex ‘cousins’ may actually have been growing teens
Dinosaurs once thought to be mini cousins of Tyrannosaurus rex may have been merely adolescent members of the famous species, a new study suggests.
By Sid Perkins