Rampaging vines are slowly strangling tropical forests
Science News Explores
by Douglas Fox
3h ago
Evan Gora still remembers the first time he climbed a tree that had been struck by lightning. The trunk of this strangler fig was as wide as a car. Its leaves were waxy and boat-shaped. At first glance, the tree didn’t look like it had been toasted by 300 million volts of electricity. But as Gora hefted his way up, he saw faint signs that it had been zapped 10 days before. Leaves at the tips of some branches were scorched and dead. Lightning had jumped from these branches to neighboring trees, Gora realized. He also saw that the lightning had traveled from tree to tree across ropy growths know ..read more
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Could we build a mecha?
Science News Explores
by Aaron Tremper
3h ago
Optimus Prime from The Transformers rearranges his body parts to become a semitrailer truck. In the Gundam series, pilots battle in space using massive mobile suits. Power Rangers fuse smaller machines together to fight crime as a humanoid robot, Megazord.     Called mechas, these larger-than-life robots have what it takes to save the day. But would these giants hold up in real life?  If you travel to Yokohama, Japan, you can find a real-life Gundam. Sort of. Standing at 18 meters (59 feet) tall, this huge robot can’t fly in space or wield laser beam sabers. But it can ..read more
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This urban gardener is mimicking nature to create healthier plants
Science News Explores
by Aaron Tremper
2d ago
Kwesi Joseph’s passion for soil health started while trying to fix his backyard garden. He turned to a local community garden for help. That’s where he learned about natural farming. This type of growing doesn’t rely on harsh chemicals to help plants thrive. Instead, gardeners use processes already found in nature. Adding eggshells and compost can boost nutrients in the soil, for instance. Integrated pest management attracts insects and birds that eat common garden pests. “It’s like having a military in your backyard,” says Joseph. “But it’s one designed by nature.”  Gardening also inspir ..read more
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Scientists Say: Megalodon
Science News Explores
by Maria Temming
3d ago
Megalodon (noun, “MEH-guh-luh-dawn”) The megalodon was the largest shark to ever live. This species’ official name is Otodus megalodon. This fish prowled warm ocean waters around the world starting about 20 million years ago. It went extinct around 3 million years ago — likely due to a cooling of Earth’s climate. Like all sharks, the megalodon had a skeleton made of cartilage. (That’s the tough but flexible material in your nose and ears.) Cartilage does not preserve as well as bone. So much of what we know about megalodons comes from their teeth. Some details are also known from fossilized m ..read more
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Artificial intelligence helped design a new type of battery
Science News Explores
by Emily Conover
3d ago
With more and more devices being powered by batteries, there’s a hunt to find new, safer and cheaper materials to use in those batteries. Doing that has traditionally involved tinkering in the lab — with lots of trial-and-error. But artificial intelligence (AI) could speed up that process, new research shows. And it hints that computers might help identify new materials for batteries to meet specific needs. A team of 11 researchers in Washington started with a huge pool of potential materials for a new battery. Some of the researchers worked for Microsoft in Redmond. Others worked at the Energ ..read more
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Analyze This: Marsupial gliders may avoid the ground to dodge predators
Science News Explores
by Carolyn Wilke
6d ago
Bats are the only mammals that fly. But other mammals, such as some squirrels and lemurs, can glide through the air. They do so on membranes that stretch between their limbs. Scientists have wondered why these mammals evolved to sail through the sky. Now, new research hints that some mammals glide to avoid predators on the ground. In mammals, gliding has evolved at least nine times, says Jasmin Annett. She’s an ecologist at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Sippy Downs, Australia. Among a group of mammals called marsupials, gliding occurs in only one family. This family includes the enda ..read more
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U.S. lawmakers look for ways to protect kids on social media
Science News Explores
by Kathiann Kowalski
1w ago
Nate Bronstein loved basketball and played the drums. Yet nasty texts and Snapchat messages threatened the Chicago, Ill., teen. They urged him to harm himself. As the abuse continued, Nate’s mental health worsened. One day in early 2022, the 15-year-old killed himself. Twelve-year-old Matthew Minor was scrolling online one night after dinner. The Maryland boy found a TikTok video about a choking dare. Matthew tried it. He probably thought he would just pass out. Instead, he died. On January 31, the parents of these boys and dozens of other grieving family members packed a U.S. Senate hearing r ..read more
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Explainer: Sprites, jets, ELVES and other storm-powered lights
Science News Explores
by Maria Temming
1w ago
Paul Smith recalls the first time he captured a sprite. He was shocked. It was the summer of 2017. Smith had gone out to California’s Mojave Desert to photograph a meteor shower. While driving, “I thought I saw sprites out of the corner of my eye,” he says. “Just flashes on the horizon.” These sprites were no fairytale creatures. They’re jagged, blood-red glows that sometimes appear above powerful thunderstorms. While setting up to view the meteors, Smith aimed one camera at the distant storm — on the chance there really were sprites there. “After about an hour, I caught this one sprite,” he s ..read more
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This frog is the world’s smallest known vertebrate
Science News Explores
by Erin Garcia de Jesús
1w ago
A Brazilian flea toad’s head is too tiny to bear its many crowns. The critter (Brachycephalus pulex) is neither a flea nor a toad. Instead, it’s a wee frog with two big new titles. It’s just been named the world’s smallest known amphibian and the smallest known vertebrate. Let’s learn about frogs From snout to rump, one adult measured just under 6.5 millimeters. That’s about a quarter of an inch. It’s small enough to sit comfortably on a pinkie fingernail. And it sneaks under the previous record by about half a millimeter. A team reported this mini male February 7 in Zoologica Scripta. Mirco S ..read more
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At last: How poison dart frogs ship defense toxins to their skin
Science News Explores
by Erin Garcia de Jesús
1w ago
A diet of insects gives poison dart frogs their toxic skin. That, in turn, helps them fend off predators. To get from food to skin, chemicals in the frogs’ guts may hitch a ride there via molecular “taxicabs.”   There are more than 175 species of poison dart frogs. As a group, these animals host more than 500 chemical poisons. These compounds belong to a class called alkaloids. The frogs don’t make these chemicals, though. They pick them up from the insects these amphibians eat. How these chemicals make it from a frog’s guts to its skin has been a mystery.   “[P]oison frogs ..read more
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