Life

Animals

This frog is the world’s smallest known vertebrate

Neither fleas nor toads, Brazilian flea toads are almost flea-sized. These mini frogs are small enough to fit on a pinkie fingernail.

Animals

At last: How poison dart frogs ship defense toxins to their skin

A liver protein appears to help the amphibians collect and move toxins from their food to their skin. Those toxins can defend the frogs from predators.

Brain

Handwriting may boost brain connections that aid memory

Writing with a pen — but not typing — boosted links between regions used for motion and memory. That may help explain why writing fosters learning.

Animals

Experiment: Are we there yet? Test how migratory birds navigate

In this experiment, use real data to figure out how migratory birds navigate from their breeding grounds to their wintering grounds.

Health & Medicine

Family, friends and community inspired these high school scientists

When looking for research ideas, listen to the people around you. What problems are they facing? What could you do to help?

Microbes

Let’s learn about useful bacteria

Bacteria do many useful jobs almost everywhere on Earth, from the soil to the seafloor to our stomachs.

Animals

Scientists still aren’t always sure why dogs wag their tails

Your dog is wagging its tail. That must mean it’s happy, right? Maybe not. Scientists know less about what’s behind this behavior than you might think.

Brain

Scientists Say: Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out and believe information that agrees with what we already think.

Plants

To spy this palm’s blooms and fruits, start digging underground

Plants across 33 families are known for subterranean flowering or fruiting. But this palm is extremely rare. It does both.

Physics

Here’s why blueberries aren’t blue — but appear to be

Blueberries actually have dark red pigments — no blue ones — in their skin. Tiny structures in the fruits’ waxy coat are what make them seem blue.

Animals

Here’s why thousands of octopuses gather at the ‘Octopus Garden’

Underwater cameras and other instruments investigated why so many pearl octopuses gather here to mate and nest.

Life

Bacterial fossils exhibit earliest hints of photosynthesis

Microscopic fossils from Australia suggest that some bacteria evolved structures for oxygen-producing photosynthesis by 1.78 billion years ago.