All Stories
- Animals
Giant rat border agents could help put a stop to wildlife poaching
African giant pouched rats have been trained to ferret out elephant ivory, pangolin scales and more. They could be put to work preventing smuggling.
- Chemistry
Scientists Say: Rocket propellants
Rockets need more than fuel to get where they need to go — they also need oxidizers to burn that fuel. Together, these chemical combos are known as rocket propellants.
- Plants
Catapulting pollen helps this flower beat out its rivals
With explosive blasts of pollen, male Hypenia macrantha flowers remove rival pollen from hummingbird beaks before the birds reach female flowers.
- Chemistry
Experiment: What makes ice melt fastest?
During the winter, you might have seen trucks spreading a mix of salt and sand on the roads to de-ice them. But how does that work? Let’s investigate.
- Microbes
New type of division can split this microbe into 14 cells at once
The newfound strategy seen in C. matruchotii might help oral bacteria recover lost territory after each eviction by toothbrushing.
- Plants
Are plants intelligent? It seems to depend on how you define it
Plants can do a lot of the same things animals do: communicate, learn — even remember. Now scientists want to know if that means they’re intelligent.
- Fossils
Analyze This: How big was the biggest T. rex?
Only around 80 fossil Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons have been found. They probably don’t include the biggest T. rex that ever lived.
- Archaeology
Let’s learn about ancient pyramids
You may have heard of pyramids built in ancient Egypt — but what about ones built elsewhere in Africa, Europe and the Americas?
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- Animals
To keep their pools clean, some tadpoles don’t poop for weeks
Eiffinger’s tree frog tadpoles store their solid waste in an intestinal pouch. This releases less toxic ammonia into their watery cribs.
- Earth
Explainer: How volcanoes erupt
Magma can sit underground for tens, hundreds or even thousands of years before an influx of new magma or gush of gas triggers a volcano to erupt.
- Earth
Earthquakes upped the death toll at Pompeii
Broken bodies found at a house in Pompeii suggest that earthquakes played a role in the legendary tragedy.
