Science News Explores
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Science News Explores is for readers of any age, from middle school on up. https://linktr.ee/sn.explores See also @sciencenews.bsky.social 🧪
A new study has mined the preserved poos of ancient ground squirrels for their DNA, then used it to help imagine the environment in which they’d lived. https://www.snexplores.org/article/ice-age-squirrel-poop-ecosystem
Frozen poop reveals Ice Age squirrels’ ecosystem
Ancient ground squirrels were anything but picky eaters. Genetic material from grasses to woolly mammoths popped up in frozen squirrel poop.
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As a theoretical astrophysicist, Ronald Gamble translates reality into math. “I feel like Tony Stark every other day,” he says. https://www.snexplores.org/article/art-helped-this-astrophysicist-make-sense-of-math
Art helped this astrophysicist make sense of math
Ronald Gamble takes cues from the arts to study supermassive black holes and their spacetime geometry.
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Cave dirt suggests one of our ancestors used fire nearly 1.8 million years ago. https://www.snexplores.org/article/oldest-human-fire-use
Humans have used fire far longer than anyone realized
Cave dirt suggests one ancestral species was using fire around 1.8 million years ago. That pushes back the earliest known use by about 800,000 years.
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Researchers are finding ways to cut the carbon ‘pawprint’ of pets’ foods, poop and more. https://www.snexplores.org/article/greener-pets-less-impact-environment
How to lessen your pet’s impacts on the planet
Climate-friendly food choices, new poop solutions and avoiding animals collected from the wild can all help make pet ownership more sustainable.
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Can I really use AI to learn math? Yes, but how you use it makes a difference. If you’re not careful, it can actually slow your progress! https://www.snexplores.org/article/ai-math-tutor-learning
AI can be a helpful math tutor if used right — and harmful if not
Using AI to learn math concepts can boost understanding. But if used to get quick answers, AI can become a crutch that hurts learning.
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Honeybees don't just feed their queens — they may actively engineer them. https://www.snexplores.org/article/royal-wax-queen-honeybee
Wax seems key in turning honeybee larvae into queens
Worker bees build some ‘cribs’ with a special wax. It seems to turn larva into royals — and challenges the idea that royal jelly was all it took.
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The bones of a gliding dinosaur might have just revealed the solution to a gruesome whodunit. https://www.snexplores.org/article/dino-ancient-bird-murder-mystery
A new dino may be the culprit in an ancient murder mystery
The new microraptor, a dino called Jian changmaensis, may have snacked on birds when not gliding through northwestern China some 120 million years ago.
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Despite its name, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is not a “disorder” but a natural — and fairly common — variation in how the brain develops. https://www.snexplores.org/article/explainer-what-is-adhd
What is ADHD? Common traits, misconceptions and tips for success
Short for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, ADHD affects how people think, learn and process information.
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So imagine if this newly discovered microbe were a mini version of the Hulk…but a cannibal. https://www.snexplores.org/article/hulk-cannibal-microbe
This microbe turns into a ‘Hulk’ that eats its own kind
The shape-shifting transformation of the microbe Euplotes gigatrox may reveal how early life learned to act in complex ways.
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We asked mental health experts about where chatbots can be helpful — and harmful. https://www.snexplores.org/article/ai-chatbots-therapy-mental-health
What to know about using AI chatbots for therapy
More and more young people are turning to AI chatbots for mental health help. Know how these tools can actually help — plus the risks of treating chatbots like therapy.
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Meet our galaxy’s puffiest planets. They're about as dense as cotton candy! https://www.snexplores.org/article/superpuff-planets-dense-as-cotton-candy
‘Superpuff‘ planets are as dense as cotton candy
The puffiest planets known in our galaxy orbit a sunlike star more than 1,000 light-years from Earth.
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Machines can now print tissues, layer by layer, using “inks” made of living cells. https://www.snexplores.org/article/explainer-what-is-bioprinting
Explainer: What is bioprinting?
Machines can now print tissues, layer by layer, using "inks" made of living cells. This bioprinting technology brings lab-grown organs closer to reality.
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A clock made from an atomic nucleus let physicists search for dark matter in a new way. https://www.snexplores.org/article/first-atomic-nuclear-clock
Scientists made clocks from an atomic nucleus
These super high-tech timepieces use the chemical element thorium to keep time. And as the clocks improve, they could help solve some mysteries in physics.
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A simple song may be enough to set up unhatched chicks for a hot introduction to the world. https://www.snexplores.org/article/songs-change-finch-brains-heat
Songs prep unhatched finches' brains for a hot world
Adult finches make “heat calls” to their eggs when temps rise. Exposure to those songs trigger chicks' developing brains to change in ways that better handle heat.
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In the United States, the sunscreen ingredient list hasn’t changed in 20 years — until now. https://www.snexplores.org/article/new-sunscreen-option-bemotrizinol
U.S. sunscreen users are finally getting a new option
FDA will now allow the use of bemotrizinol in U.S. sunscreens. This long-lasting chemical protects against the solar radiation that ages and damages skin.
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Hey junior detectives! In this experiment, compare the size of fake blood stains to the distance they fell. https://www.snexplores.org/article/experiment-forensics-blood-spatter
Measure fake blood spatter in this physics experiment
Future forensic scientists, it’s time to fake a crime scene! Get out your corn syrup and red food coloring to learn about blood spatter.
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The strategy of making hues with lots of differently colored dots might seem like a human invention. “But actually, evolution had invented it millions of years ago,” says materials scientist Samuel Humphrey. https://www.snexplores.org/article/how-sea-slugs-get-bright-colors
How sea slugs get their flashy colors
Crystals beneath the skin of nudibranchs, also called sea slugs, allow the creatures to make an array of intense hues with just one material.
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𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜! King cobra stowaways don’t just put human passengers in danger. They also risk traveling far from their native habitats. https://www.snexplores.org/article/king-cobras-riding-trains-india-comic
King cobras may be riding trains across India [COMIC]
The snakes may be tempted onboard by tasty rodents — but train rides can carry cobras far from their forest habitats.
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Our ability to decode animal sounds is advancing, which someday might make animal translators a possibility. https://www.snexplores.org/article/talking-animals-speak-language-tech
A giant stone “jar” in northeastern Laos contains the ancient remains of dozens of dead. https://www.snexplores.org/article/laos-plain-of-jars-burial-mystery
The mystery of the ‘Plain of Jars’ in Laos may now be solved
The remains of at least 37 people sit in an ancient stone "jar." They suggest thousands of such vessels in Laos' Plain of Jars are burial vaults.
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Surfer-scientist Cliff Kapono gets his best ideas in the ocean. It makes sense, he says. The Hawaiian word for "idea" is the same as "wave" — nalu. https://www.snexplores.org/article/surfer-scientist-big-waves
Big waves shape this surfer-scientist’s research and life
Professor and pro surfer Cliff Kapono studies how reef structures affect waves, from molecular to macro scales.
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Steel rusts over time. Copper turns green. But gold stays shiny, seemingly forever. Why? https://www.snexplores.org/article/why-gold-does-not-rust-physics
Gold doesn’t ‘rust.' Physics explains why
Metals like copper tarnish when they react with oxygen in the air. Gold doesn’t, thanks to a quick rearrangement of atoms on its surface.
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Event horizon: When something drawn into a black hole passes this boundary, it exits the observable universe. https://www.snexplores.org/article/scientists-say-event-horizon-definition-pronunciation
Scientists Say: Event horizon
Past this boundary, nothing that enters a black hole can ever leave — not even light.
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Some fuzzy microbes that live in the guts of cud-chewing animals may hold the key to controlling emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas, by cows. https://www.snexplores.org/article/fuzzy-microbes-cows-methane-burps
Cows' methane burps may be driven by fuzzy microbes
Production of the methane is triggered by a newfound feature of the gut microbes — one with a funny name: hydrogenobody.
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What would happen if you tried to break a photon? In typical fashion, quantum physics offers the weirdest answer possible. https://www.snexplores.org/article/break-light-photon-quantum-mess
Trying to break a photon would create a quantum mess
Attempting to cut a light particle in half would spawn up to infinite new photons, a new model shows.
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Cinderella’s mouse friends aren’t the only rodents who can sing. These mice can serenade with a 10-second-long song. https://www.snexplores.org/article/singing-mice-throat-air-sacs
Here’s how ‘singing’ mice belt out their tiny tunes
Balloon-like air sacs in the mice's throats create whistling songs. No other animal is known to make calls in this way.
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Release the kraken's secrets. 🐙 Scientists made digital models of colossal ancient octopuses' remains to learn about their lifestyle. https://www.snexplores.org/article/giant-octopuses-cretaceous-kraken
Giant school bus–sized octopuses may have once ruled the oceans
Some of these predators were as long as whales. Roaming the seas more than 72 million years ago, the octopuses appear to have been the largest invertebrates ever known.
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Mosquitoes can link a repellant’s unpleasant odor with a reward — turning a negative experience into a positive one, a new study suggests. https://www.snexplores.org/article/deet-repellent-attract-mosquitoes
Mosquitoes may learn to like DEET, a common insect repellent
In lab tests, mosquitoes exposed to DEET while feeding learned to associate the chemical with food.
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In less than a day, these insects can color shift — from a deep blue-green to a vibrant coppery green. https://www.snexplores.org/article/bees-change-color-humidity
Like living mood rings, these bees change color when it turns humid
Humidity makes North American sweat bees change color. This trait could be widespread among shiny insects, some biologists now suspect.
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