Butterflies and moths suck up pollen with static electricityWhile bees get most of the pollination hype, butterflies and moths are some of our planet’s power pollinators. While in flight, they collect so much static electricity that pollen grains from flowers are pulled up without the insects even touching the plants.
Could you go a whole week without buying new plastic?The amount of plastic that we throw out really piles up. A "Morning Edition" staffer decided to find out how hard it would be to not buy any new plastic for a week. How did she do?
How San Antonio Became a National Water Conservation ModelThanks to a blind salamander, San Antonio became a national leader in water conservation. The eyeless, five-inch-long mass of virtually unpigmented flesh lives in the watery caverns of the Edwards Aquifer.
When babies are born, they cry in the accent of their mother tongue: how does language begin in the womb?Some restless infants don’t wait for birth to let out their first cry. They cry in the womb, a rare but well-documented phenomenon called vagitus uterinus (from the Latin word vagire, meaning to wail). Legend has it that Bartholomew the Apostle cried out in utero.
Cluster headache is debilitating. These citizen scientists took treatment into their own handsImagine a pain so severe it's comparable to a searing hot iron being jammed into your left eye socket.
Humans Could Forge a Hybrid Consciousness by Merging With Artificial Life, Oxford Scientists SayAt the turn of the 8th century B.C.E., ancient Greek poet Hesiod wrote a curious tale about a strange robot named Talos.
Researchers say oxygen is being produced on the ocean floor. The mining company funding them isn't happyOxygen is being produced on the ocean floor — seemingly by ancient lumps of metal — according to a new study. That discovery is putting the scientists behind it at odds with the Canada-based mining company that funded them.
Sex and Gender Map onto Different Brain Networks in ChildrenA new brain-imaging study of young adolescents has shown that sex and gender map onto different brain networks.
Researchers track individual neurons as they respond to words“Language is a huge field, and we are novices in this.
What defines a species? Inside the fierce debate that's rocking biology to its coreIn 2016, scientists published a paper with a bold claim: that the giraffe, first described as a species by Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus in 1758, might actually have been four species all along.
To Find Alien Life, We Might Have to Kill ItWhen is it OK to kill an alien life-form? In the movies, the answer is usually pretty simple: It’s OK in self-defense, especially if it inspires a rousing speech about human exceptionalism. But in the real world, the choice is neither straightforward nor abstract.
Alzheimer's Risk Is Strongly Shaped by Your Mother's Side, Study FindsThe genetic risk of developing Alzheimer's disease is more strongly influenced by the mother's side than the father's side, a recent study has discovered. Alzheimer's disease steals memories, independence and the capacity to connect with loved ones.
Will space-based solar power ever make sense?Is space-based solar power a costly, risky pipe dream? Or is it a viable way to combat climate change? Although beaming solar power from space to Earth could ultimately involve transmitting gigawatts, the process could be made surprisingly safe and cost-effective, according to experts from Space Sol
Scientists find ‘dark oxygen’ being produced from metals on the seafloorScientists have found evidence that metals naturally occurring on the ocean floor may be able to produce oxygen — a potential “game changer” they say could change our understanding of the origins of life on Earth.
Psilocybin desynchronizes thehuman brainA single dose of psilocybin, a psychedelic that acutely causes distortions of spacetime perception and ego dissolution, produces rapid and persistent therapeutic effects in human clinical trials1,2,3,4. In animal models, psilocybin induces neuroplasticity in cortex and hippocampus5,6,7,8.