A Moment of Science

When a gardener digs up a tree or shrub in one place and transplants it to another, the plant will endure all sorts of stress. It’s common for transplants to show signs of shock. Most often these plants are unable to recover.

The eyes on the wings of a butterfly can look kind of strange, but they're not looking at you, they're just a deflecting mechanism. Like a lot of butterfly species, the African satyrid butterfly's eyespots make predators more likely to attack its wings rather than the more vital parts of its body.

In 2020 an international team of astonomers made a surprising discovery using the James Clerk Maxwell telescope in Hawai'i. They found evidence that the atmosphere of the planet Venus contains tiny amounts of phsophine gas.

When you take your temperature, we hope to find that we have a normal temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. This might not be as normal as we think, though.

A team of Swedish biomedical researchers have just discovered a new organ in the bodies of mice, and they expect that humans have it, too. They missed this organ until now because it's not a complicated organ like a heart or a liver.

When a landslide in China created a treeless gully in a forest, the apes who lived there had to leap dangerously across, or take a long detour through the trees. So scientists built them a bridge.

During times of mandatory isolation, like COVID-19 “social distancing”, countless people experience loneliness, but our craving for social contact is also very similar to cravings like thirst and hunger.

Thiophenes are compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and sulfur. Their molecules contain a ring of four carbon atoms and one sulfur atom. They are found in coal, crude oil, in fossils of microscopic life, and bacterial mats.

There are documented accounts by scientists of elephants' interest in the bodies of their dead. In 2019 a team of American researchers added their own observation at the Samburu National Reserve in Kenya.

In 2020, a team of American scientists reported the first remotely sensed evidence of the mineral hematite on Earth's moon. The researchers made their discovery with a NASA instrument aboard the Indian space agency's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft orbiting the moon.

Sensitivity to loud noises, like thunder or fireworks, is the most common kind of anxiety for dogs. In fact, researchers at the University of Helsinki had dog owners around the world report on their canines' anxiety.

Scientists have mulling over the origin of the penguin. And after sequencing the genome of the 18 species of penguins that exist today, they have a pretty good idea how these evolved.

If you visit an archive with scrolls, illuminated manuscripts, or old books on display, you might notice a particular kind of round, yellowish, or orange-tinted stain on some of the paper artifacts. This color effect is called foxing, and paper so affected is said to be “foxed.”

Just like the impact of an asteroid or a comet, the explosion of a volcano can be a major disaster. 39,000 years ago the Campi Flegrei volcano blew up in what's now Italy, blasting 70 cubic miles of molten rock into the stratosphere.

Some animals go to great lengths to exfoliate. Some scientists think that the reason some whale species make their long migration is to shed their skin, not to feed or give birth.

Many astronomers think that exoplanets circling distant stars might be waterworlds, but maybe we don't need to look that far away. In 2020 two American geologists published evidence that Earth's surface may have been entirely covered with water up until at least 3.2 billion years ago.

Do we learn gestures by watching others make them? Or do our patterns of gesture originate from language itself?

The Great Barrier Reef is that gigantic coral reef off the coast of Queensland, Australia, and it may be dying. This reef is the largest biological structure on Earth, and covers 130,000 square miles.

Here’s a joke for astronomy buffs: what’s a black hole’s favorite meal? Spaghettification! Of course, the joke only makes sense if you know what spaghettification means. This A Moment of Science explains that punchline.

Science has done some amazing things, but nobody really knows if it could ever extend our life span, or eliminate aging entirely. Recently, a team of researchers from California found a way to reverse aging in several kinds of human cells.

Male dolphins hang out with acquaintances and family, but they also spend a lot of time with their best friend. Adult male bottlenose dolphins often bond in duos or trios.

92 million years ago, during the time of the dinosaurs, there was a rainforest in Antarctica. This isn't due to the movement of continents on Earth's tectonic plates. Even 92 million years ago, Antarctica was still near the South Pole.

The hunting abilities of house cats are pretty impressive. They look so cute and cuddly, and then they turn out to be ferocious killers. A lot of people don't realize that they're a pretty big threat to local animal populations.

Over the years, Brussels sprouts and broccoli have developed a bad reputation as unappetizing health food. In spite of this, they are some of the most delicious vegetables out there, as long as they're cooked correctly.

The bell pepper is one of the most popular vegetables in the world (even though it’s technically a fruit). Its deeply pigmented, shiny skin advertises its other qualities: flavor and texture, of course, but also nutritional content.