Life

Physics

Could a person ever wield lightning as a weapon? 

From the shocking powers of electric eels to laser-guided lightning, aiming electricity is more real than it sounds.

Animals

As toddlers, chimps are major risk takers

Human kiddos are generally too closely supervised to be able to monkey around as much as young chimps. Instead, older kids — teens — are usually the bigger risk takers.

Environment

Antarctica faces a green and weedy future

Warming is allowing alien species to invade a land that had been isolated for 30 million years. They now threaten local ecosystems unique to Antarctica.

Plants

Scientists Say: Pollination

Plants call upon wind, water or helpful animals to carry out this crucial step of their life cycle.

Fossils

Prehistoric ‘sea’ monster also lurked in rivers, data show

A 66-million-year-old fossil tooth turned up alongside remains of a T. rex and ancient crocodile. This shows some mosasaurs roamed into rivers.

Tech

Scientists Say: Cryogenic

This deep-frozen field of science allows conservation biologists to preserve the DNA of endangered species and more.

Health & Medicine

You need to eat protein — but the right mix really matters

All proteins are not equal, research is showing. So while most Americans get plenty of protein, they might not be eating the most nutritious blend.

Fossils

Let’s learn about Tyrannosaurus rex

These fearsome predators truly were enormous — with the bone-crushing bite power to match.

Animals

Lions have a second roar that scientists have only just discovered

This insight from machine-learning analyses of recordings of calls in the wild might help detect where lions are declining.

Animals

Chicago’s Rat Hole? Science concludes it’s likely not from a rat

Researchers employed tools of paleontology to analyze the iconic landmark — a sidewalk critter crater made when a mystery rodent fell into wet concrete.

Brain

Scientists Say: Hallucination

Humans are not the only ones who can hallucinate. When a chatbot confidently generates a plausible but incorrect response, this error is called a hallucination.

Plants

Yum! Flies swarm to a flower that smells like wounded ants

A type of Japanese dogbane emits the distress signal of injured ants — a particular scent — to draw in scavenging flies that end up pollinating its flowers.