A Moment of Science

What's in a Shape 

Older Dinosaur Herds 

George Washington Comes Out Right Side Up 

Whiskers, the Shameless Freeloader      

Hurricane Damage That Lasts 

Is Earth Getting Dimmer? 

Juiced Up 

The Elusive Beaked Whale 

14,400-year-old Bread 

Too Warm or Too Cold to Fly 

Eye Movements and Personality 

Shark Tourism 

Can Lightning Strike You in the Shower? 

Moth Wingtips Confuse Bat Radar 

Elephants Smelling Far Away Food 

Modern Biology in a Monastery Garden 

If a river has a chance, it will meander, winding over the land in a series of loops. Geologists even call these loops "meanders." You can see meanders on a map--along the lower Mississippi, the Alabama River near Selma, The Arkansas near Tulsa, the Ohio near Evansville, and on thousands of smaller streams--wherever there's a steady flow of water over nearly flat land of fine-textured soils. River...

Hummingbirds have a voracious appetite for nectar, the sugary fluid secreted by flowers . To survive, they usually drink between five and fourteen times their weight in nectar every day. Finding all that nectar isn’t easy. Some flowers may have already been emptied of nectar by other visitors, or might be occupied by dangerous insects such as ants. Biologists want to understand how hummingbirds us...

Have you ever wondered why some cuisines, like Indian and Thai, are so spicy and others, like English, are so bland? India and Thailand are very hot countries, while England is cold and damp. The answer does have something to do with the climate associated with each cuisine, but maybe not in the way that you'd first think. You might wonder why would you want to eat spicy food when it's hot outside...

What legendary creatures of the deep fill you with wonder? The squid-like kraken, able to tear ships pirate apart with its tentacles? Or the megalodon, an enormous shark from millions of years ago? Or sirens, mermaids who lure sailors to their death? These monsters haunt old stories of the ocean. We’re fascinated by their supernatural mystery. And perhaps no epic animal of lore enchants, inspires,...

If you’ve seen a grove of quaking aspen, you’ll recall trees with smooth, grey-white bark fissured with black streaks and flat leaves of green and yellow that shimmer with the lightest breeze. A forest canopy of quaking aspen is often dense where sunlight is plentiful because they’re intolerant of shade. This growing pattern allows quaking aspen to colonize large swaths of land, with individual tr...

Many animal appendages, such as legs, tails, beaks, or ears can be used to dissipate excess body heat . Because of this cooling function, these body parts generally have a larger surface area relative to their volume for mammals and birds that live in warmer climates than for such animals that live in colder climates. This principle of animal form is called ‘Allen’s rule’ after its discoverer; the...

Today's moment of science is inspired by the plethora of crime dramas. How do the one-way mirrors we see in these shows so often actually work? The trick is simpler than you might think. Most mirrors are made by applying a thin layer of a reflective material, aluminum in most cases, to the back of a sheet of glass. This is called back silvering, and it makes the glass opaque. When we look in a mir...

We don’t usually think of friends in terms of what advantages they give us, although, if asked, most people would probably say that their friends add a lot to their lives. Scientists view friendship among animals in slightly starker terms: if strong social bonds exist between animals , it probably means such ties directly benefit the animals in some way. A team of researchers set out to find out w...

Are you a twin? No, well are you sure? You could be a twin, but the twin is within, or a chimera. The Lion-Goat-Dragon You A chimera is a mythological beast with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon. However, in biology a chimera is an organism made up of two distinct genetic lines. It's what happens when twin embryos fuse in the womb. The fusion results in what looks l...