Zebra Finches Sing a Heat Warning to Their Chicks Before They Hatch
Before zebra finch chicks even crack their shells, a parent's special song is already changing the way their brains will handle hot weather for the rest of their lives.
Rice Does Something Weird Under Pressure, and Scientists Built a Smart Material From It
Scientists found that rice grains get weaker when hit fast and stronger when pressed slowly — the opposite of most materials. Now they've used that quirk to engineer a material that adapts on its own.
Scientists Engineered a Giant Fire Whirl to Fight Oil Spills — and It Actually Works
A Texas A&M research team built a controlled 17-foot fire tornado and discovered it burns oil nearly twice as fast as traditional methods, with far less pollution. Could spinning fire be the future of ocean cleanup?
Ancient Giant Scorpion Hiding in a Museum for 150 Years Turns Out to Be Earth's Biggest
A fossil stored in London's Natural History Museum for over 150 years has been confirmed as the largest scorpion ever to walk the Earth — and it was nearly three feet long.
Jian changmaensis: The Four-Winged Dinosaur That May Have Hunted Ancient Birds Like a Gliding Predator
Scientists have identified a new dinosaur species related to Velociraptor that likely used four feathered limbs to glide — and it may be the long-sought predator behind mysterious crushed bird-bone clusters found in China.
Dogs Have Been Eating Grass Forever, and Science Says That Is Completely Fine
Forget the upset-stomach theory — researchers have found that most dogs graze on grass because they simply enjoy it, and the habit may go back to their wild ancestors.
430,000-Year-Old Wooden Tools Found in Greece Rewrite the Story of Early Humans
Scientists have discovered the oldest hand-held wooden tools ever found, buried at an ancient lakeside site in Greece for nearly half a million years. The carved artifacts reveal that early humans were far more skilled and resourceful than researchers once believed.
Scientists Found a 100-Million-Year-Old Bug With Claws Like a Crab
Trapped in ancient amber from the age of dinosaurs, a newly discovered insect had crab-like grasping claws found in no living bug today — and its scientific name honors a famous K-pop group.
Mosquitoes Can Be Trained to Treat DEET as an Invitation to Bite
A new study shows that mosquitoes can learn to associate DEET bug spray with a meal, turning one of our best repellents into something that actually attracts them. Scientists say DEET still works, but how we use it matters more than we thought.
The Biggest Dinosaur Ever Lived — So Why Can't Scientists Agree on Which One It Was?
Dinosaurs like Patagotitan and Nagatitan were almost impossibly huge, but figuring out which one truly takes the crown is a surprisingly difficult puzzle involving floods, scavengers, and missing bones.
Scientists Scan a 380-Million-Year-Old Fish Skull and Find Clues to How Life First Left the Water
A rare fossil fish from Antarctica is giving researchers a detailed look at the brains and body features that helped ancient creatures make the leap from water to land.
Pigeons Have a Built-In Magnetic Compass — and Scientists Just Found It in Their Liver
For decades, scientists wondered how homing pigeons navigate hundreds of miles with pinpoint accuracy. The answer turned out to be hiding in one of the last places anyone expected: iron-filled immune cells tucked inside the liver.