Life
- 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.
- Brain
Purple exists only in our brains
Most colors represent a single wavelength of light. But your brain invents purple to deal with wavelengths from opposite ends of the visible spectrum.
- Oceans
The world’s largest coral is longer than a blue whale
Scientists found the coral off the coast of the Solomon Islands.
- Life
Scientists Say: Chimera
What does it mean to be an individual? The genetic mashups called chimeras might challenge your assumptions.
- Climate
Meet Chonkus, a mutant microbe that could help fight climate change
A hulking marine cyanobacterium, Chonkus has traits that appears to make it especially good for storing away carbon on the ocean floor.
- Ecosystems
Analyze This: In movies, wetlands often get a bad rap
Swamps in films are often linked to danger, death and strange things. But movies also highlight wetlands’ biodiversity and resources.
- Brain
A single sniff is enough to detect slight odor changes
The speed of our ability to perceive odors is on par with that of color perception, a new sniff device shows.
- Ecosystems
There’s life beneath the snow — but it’s at risk of melting away
The organisms that make winter homes in this subnivium help forests thrive year-round. But climate change is making this ecosystem disappear.
- Plants
Plant and fungi parts help robots level up
Fusing machines with plants and fungi isn’t just sci-fi. A new generation of biohybrid devices could someday help in agriculture or energy production.
- Brain
Scientists Say: Aphantasia
Not everyone has a “mind’s eye,” and that’s OK. Some people recall memories and process information in different ways altogether.
- Brain
Ouch! The pain of pulled hair registers superfast
A hair pull is detected by a protein used to sense light touches. It also travels faster than most other types of pain.
- Plants
Explainer: How to identify tree species in the winter
No leaves to be found? Then buds, bark and branches might help you ID what tree you see.
