A Moment of Science

In 2020 an interdisciplinary team of American researchers published a study on how butterflies keep their wings cool. Using a specialized infrared camera, they found that the living parts of the wings, around the wing veins, were best at radiating heat.

The largest shark that ever lived is called Otodus megalodon. Its teeth were as big as a human hand. The oldest fossil evidence dates from 20 million years ago, and it became extinct just 3.5 million years ago.

Neutron stars can form when a giant star goes supernova. During a supernova, the star’s core collapses, and the remaining protons and electrons get squeezed together so tightly that their nuclei touch.

Even very different kinds of books share some common characteristics, like the pattern of their function words. These are the short connector words such as pronouns and prepositions, as well as articles, conjunctions, negations and auxiliary verbs.

Chewed up dinosaur bones are a pretty common find in Colorado's Mygatt-Moore Quarry. According to a recent story, about 29% of 2,368 dinosaur bones researchers found had bite marks from the serrated teeth of therapods, carnivorous dinosaurs that roamed the region in the late Jurassic period 150 million years ago.

Mantises display subtle shades of color that sometimes allow them to disappear into their habitats, where you might find them perching on a blade of tall grass or a pumpkin vine.

Social media can be addictive, and sometimes it's better to cut back on use. But it isn't necessarily all bad. It can tell us some surprising things about a person's well being.

Chinchillas are sometimes singled out as being particularly adorable and fascinating. Chinchillas are native to the Andes Mountains. To survive the cold temperatures, their fur is dense, and about an inch-and-a-half long.

Near the beginning of 2020 massive wildfires ravaged Australia. The fires peaked in intensity during December and January. Damage to Australian ecosystems and wildlife was extensive.

Everyone might enjoy waking up to birdsong, but not at 4am. So what is making birds start their singing at this less idyllic time?

A eureka moment is an experience where a solution or idea suddenly appears in your mind and immediately feels true. One reason eureka experiences are peculiar is that they tend to accompany accurate solutions to problems, but they can also lead to errors.

Today we will consider a small but mighty creature called the pistol shrimp. It's a ferocious animal, known for its claws, one of which is a normal pincer. The other is an enormous snapper, which is the pistol.

When we talk to people on the phone who we know well, we can often predict their physical gestures while they're talking, even if we can't see them. That's because we've seen them do it before, and because of cues from their voices.

Some days rain falls in a light, calm sweep across the earth. On other days rain falls in a torrential downpour, flooding the ground below. So, what causes this difference?

At one Stone-Age-era archaeological site in southern Denmark on the island Lolland all of the artifacts have been sealed in mud since the Mesolithic period 6,000 years ago. One artifact is what researchers are calling an early version of chewing gum, made from birch pitch that oozed from birch bark after being heated.

Cooperation and mutual aid can help animals survive and reproduce, and in these circumstances evolution can promote helpful and unselfish behavior. A study by American researchers published in 2020 shows that domestic dogs really will rescue their owners even when they haven't been trained to do it for a reward.

Too much lead is always a cause for concern, and scientists are still learning about how lead interacts with other substances. Take aluminum and phosphate. Phosphate is sometimes added to water because it inhibits corrosion of lead pipes, reducing the amount of lead released into water.

Many years ago, it seemed like there was so much biodiversity out there, with all kinds of new plants and animals to discover. Now it seems like every corner of the world has been studied and cataloged.

The surface of Venus is dotted with ring-like structures named coronae, produced by volcanic activity. They appear to be much like the Hawaiian islands on Earth, which are products of volcanic activity from a plume of hot material welling up from Earth’s mantle.

Some of us have Neanderthal genes, and there's nothing wrong with that. There's research showing that women with a certain gene variant, or allele, inherited from Neanderthals are more fertile than women without it, and that 15 to 20 percent of women in Europe have it.

You're driving down the highway on a beautiful day as your child looks out the window. She asks, "Why is the sun following us?"

In 2020 a Japanese biologist reported discovering a species of aquatic beetle that can actively escape alive from the stomach of a pond frog. It doesn't crawl back up the frog's gullet and out its mouth, but instead goes the other way.

Despite having almost 1,300 measles cases in 2019 after measles was declared eradicated from the U.S. in 2000, some people are still hesitant to vaccinate themselves or their children.

Do you live near a dormant volcano? You might have a weird wonderland right beneath your feet.

In Hawaii, there's a lava cave named Kazumura that's over 40 miles long, the largest in the world. When a volcano erupts, it sends lava rivers rushing downhill. As these rivers flow, their sides and surfaces crust over, forming a tunnel.