Life

  1. Animals

    Cool Jobs: A whale of a time

    Studying blue whales, spinner dolphins and other cetaceans demands clever ways to unveil the out-of-sight behaviors of these marine denizens.

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  2. Animals

    Explainer: What is a whale?

    Can a dolphin be a whale — or a whale be a dolphin? Yes, because the terms used to describe the biggest marine mammals are quite elastic and fuzzy.

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  3. Microbes

    How a germ killer could backfire

    A common ingredient in toothpaste and hand sanitizers kills germs on contact. But it also can kill the helpful germs that make water safer.

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  4. Fossils

    Hot-blooded dinos? Try lukewarm

    New study finds these reptiles may have had an internal furnace that sort of resembled some sharks. It appeared to run neither hot nor cold.

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  5. Genetics

    Owww! The science of pain

    No one likes pain, but it keeps us alive. That’s why scientists want to learn how best to coexist with this complicated and still somewhat mysterious sensation.

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  6. Animals

    Salted butterflies

    The salt used on winter ice can alter the bodies of summer's butterflies. Males develop larger muscles and females get bigger brains.

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  7. Animals

    Stalking squirrels for science

    A scientist noticed the squirrels in his family’s town, and began studying them. His results show why squirrels are such good city dwellers, and prove that science is right outside your door.

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  8. Brain

    Hunger’s little helpers

    Astrocytes were thought to be nothing more than support cells for neighboring nerve cells. A new study suggests they do much more. These brain cells may help control appetite, too.

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  9. Fossils

    Fossil hunting can start as child’s play

    Paleontology isn’t just for professionals. You don’t even need to be a teen to sometimes make startling — and scientifically important — contributions.

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  10. Fossils

    Explainer: How a fossil forms

    Minerals can replace any bone, shell or once-living tissue and also fill in the spaces between these hard parts, birthing a fossil.

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  11. Animals

    A library with no books

    The Macaulay Library at Cornell University has no books. Instead, the audio library has been accumulating sound recordings since 1929.

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  12. Animals

    A library of tweets (and howls and grunts)

    The Macaulay Library houses a world of animal sounds. And now anyone with an Internet connection can check out this audio collection.

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