Science
Discover facts about science. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Science
Stalactites strictly grow downward from cave ceilings
Mineral-rich water seeps from the ceiling and leaves a tiny calcium-carbonate deposit as carbon dioxide escapes from each drop. Drop by drop, the deposit…
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Some snake venom digests tissue from the inside
Some snake venoms carry enzymes that chop up proteins in the tissue around a bite. That damages nearby cells and can open a path for venom to spread. The…
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You can cut sodium with a butter knife—but never add water
Sodium is soft enough to slice with a plastic butter knife, but water sets off a far less gentle reaction. The reaction releases heat and hydrogen gas, which…
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The endangered parrot that smells like a damp attic
The kakapo’s musky odor can attract mates, but it can also give scent-hunting mammals a trail to follow. For an endangered bird that can’t fly, a useful…
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What keeps Jupiter from becoming a star?
Jupiter has plenty of hydrogen, but not enough mass to squeeze its core into sustained hydrogen fusion. It would need roughly 80 times its current mass to…
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At speed, a bicycle can balance without a rider
As a bicycle rolls and starts to lean, its front wheel can turn toward the fall. That steers the wheels back under the frame, helping the bike catch its…
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Specific heat capacity determines warming speeds
A patch of sand and a patch of water can get similar sunlight yet warm at different speeds. Water takes more energy to gain each degree, so the sand can turn…
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Cassini discovered Saturn's rings weren't solid
Saturn’s rings are countless icy and rocky pieces, not a solid sheet. A moon’s gravity can repeatedly tug particles out of certain orbits, leaving a gap in…
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Condensation inherently releases stored thermal energy
When vapor turns back into liquid, its molecules release the energy they used to escape the liquid in the first place. That energy warms nearby air or…
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How tiny changes can derail complex systems
A weather forecast starts with measurements that can never capture the whole atmosphere perfectly. As the forecast runs, small errors in those starting…
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Microgravity can turn a flame into a glowing sphere
With buoyancy-driven airflow greatly reduced, hot gas no longer rises into the familiar candle-shaped plume. In suitably still conditions, fuel and oxygen can…
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Thallium poisoning can announce itself through hair loss
Thallium interferes with biological processes that normally involve potassium and can damage the nervous system as well as growing hair. The shedding may…
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Could a moon have its own moon
A moon can keep a smaller body in orbit only within a limited zone: too close, and the little moon may crash; too far, and the planet’s gravity can steal it.…
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A dollar auction can make losing more expensive than bidding
In this game, the highest bidder wins the dollar, but the second-highest bidder must also pay their bid and gets nothing. Once two players are committed, each…
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Why AI inherits human biases
AI learns patterns from its training material, not a built-in sense of fairness. If the examples repeatedly connect certain jobs with certain groups, a model…
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Titan has lakes made of liquid methane
Titan is so cold that methane stays liquid on its surface, while water freezes into rock-hard ground. That flips the familiar landscape: methane can fall as…
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Rutherford found the atomic nucleus bombarding gold foil
Rutherford fired particles at thin gold foil and expected the atom’s positive charge to gently deflect them if it filled the whole atom. Most passed through,…
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Why mercury stays liquid at room temperature
Mercury’s heavy nucleus changes how its inner electrons behave: relativity makes some of them move in a way that draws them closer to the nucleus. That leaves…
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Liquids can boil at room temperature in a vacuum
A liquid boils when bubbles of its vapor can grow instead of being crushed by the air around them. In a vacuum, there’s so little outside pressure that even…
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Water lilies only have pores on the top of their leaves
The underside of a floating lily pad is basically parked against the water. Its pores—the openings that let gases move in and out—are on top, where they can…
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Expeditions are about freeing your feet
“Expedition” traces back to the Latin expedire, meaning “to free the feet.” It first referred to getting someone untangled from snares, then broadened into a…
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The animal called a miner's cat is a raccoon relative
Ringtails can den in abandoned mine shafts and were kept around miners' cabins for rodent control. Their rotating hind feet help them negotiate steep…
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Magma gets a new name at the surface
Underground, molten rock is called magma; once it reaches the surface, it’s called lava. Crossing that boundary changes the label, not the rock’s chemical…
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Rendering engines eagerly convert raw code into graphics
Before a browser paints a page, it works out where the text and other pieces belong. Then it colors in the pixels; if one change shifts the layout, the…
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