A Moment of Science

Sandpaper isn't made of ordinary sand, it's made of abrasive minerals like aluminum oxide or garnet that are glued onto a paper backing.

Scientists in Australia identified a new extinct marsupial using a fossil of its molar tooth they found in a newly discovered fossil site in remote Queensland. They decided to name is Whollydooleya tomnpatrichorum.

Did you know that a third of the people living on Earth can't see the Milky Way at night? More than 80 percent of North Americans and 60 percent of Europeans are unable to see the Milky Way at night.

The main difference between hair and fur is where it grows, not what it's made of. Hair length is a trait that's specific both to you as an individual, and to your species.

Parking your car on your lawn might look strange, but it doesn't harm your grass. The part of the grass that's responsible for new growth is at the base of the plant, so even if the blades are harmed it isn't a big deal.

Multigenerations groups aren't common in zoos, but they're a really good idea for elephants. A recent study showed how important grandmother elephants are for the survival of baby calves.

In shallow water off the Greek island Zakynthos there is what could be the ruins of an old Greek or Roman city. When it was discovered, people thought it was a forgotten city that had been destroyed by tidal waves that hit the island long ago.

How do people recognize faces? Is it a special ability that relies on custom circuitry in the human brain? Or, do we learn it with the same brain circuitry that we use to recognize other objects?

King Tutankhamen of Egypt has fascinated people ever since archeologist Howard Carter discovered his splendid tomb in 1922. He ruled ancient Egypt as Pharaoh around 1330 BC, and died when he was only eighteen years old.

It might sound odd, but scientists think Mars is going to have a ring around it in tens of millions of years. They're predicting that one of Mars' moons, Phobos, is going to break apart, and its particles are going to make a ring around Mars.

According to lots of evidence, women do live longer than men, on average. In fact, humans are the only species for which this appears to be true under all conditions.

Money is known to alter behavior, for better and for worse. Some experiments have found that even just handling money can change the behavior of kids as young as three.

According to scientists, belief in a divine god makes people more generous.

Coffee and cacao beans are fermented. Similar to wine, the flavor of the beans is determined by the type of yeasts and microorganisms present.

Robotic aerial vehicles designed for functions such as search and rescue need ways to avoid crashing into trees, buildings and walls. There's a lot that robot designers can learn from studying how insects conrol their flight.

Dogs always seem to know how to improve our mood. It's almost as if they can tell exactly what we're feeling.

Although the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity found geological evidence that ancient Mars had standing liquid water a long time ago, scientists are now talking about water on Mars again.

Researchers think that the first steps in the creation of a sign language likely resemble a game of charades. According to one study, it only takes five generations of learners for a pantomime to become a stable sign.

Did you know that moths are a lot less attracted to artificial light than they used to be? Huge numbers of moths die from flying toward artificial lights and accidentally frying themselves.

A planet has to have a magnetic field to make aurora lights. The sun is always sending out particles called the solar wind. That wind frequently increases in intensity to become a solar storm when large numbers of particles are released.

Once you know something about forests, it's easy to think of trees as competitive: they have to battle it out with each other for space, sunlight, water and nutrients. But researchers are finding that there's a lot more sharing going on than they previously thought.

Today's Moment of Science is about unicorns. These creatures may be legendary, but there is growing evidence that the legend may have been inspired by a real animal.

There are hundreds of millions of malaria cases worldwide every year. It's caused by a protozoan called Plasmodium and is spread by anopheline mosquitoes. It also might have helped kill of the dinosaurs.

If you live in the United States, you probably haven't given a lot of thought to vitamin B6. Our bodies can't produce it, but it's in a lot of staple food we eat. But some diets that rely on cassava produce deficiencies.

It might sound strange, but some orchids smell like people. Others smell like rotting meat or fish to attract pollinators.