When cartoonist and marine-biology teacher Steve Hillenburg created SpongeBob SquarePants in 1999, he may have backed the wrong side of one of the longest-running controversies in the field of evolutionary biology.
Evolution
Apr 10, 2017
1
933
Wolbachia is the most successful parasite the world has ever known. You've never heard of it because it only infects bugs: millions upon millions of species of insects, spiders, centipedes and other arthropods all around ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 27, 2017
1
251
Sorry, E.T. lovers, but the results of a new study make it far less likely that KIC 8462852, popularly known as Tabby's star, is the home of industrious aliens who are gradually enclosing it in a vast shell called a Dyson ...
Astronomy
May 9, 2016
20
3503
Imagine living on a world where, every 69 years, the sun disappears in a near-total eclipse that lasts for three and a half years.
Astronomy
Feb 18, 2016
1
1613
Since 2010 scientists have known that people of Eurasian origin have inherited anywhere from 1 to 4 percent of their DNA from Neanderthals.
Archaeology
Feb 11, 2016
7
2410
If you add quantum dots - nanocrystals 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair - to a smartphone battery it will charge in 30 seconds, but the effect only lasts for a few recharge cycles.
Nanophysics
Nov 11, 2015
0
2579
In the popular mind, mass extinctions are associated with catastrophic events, like giant meteorite impacts and volcanic super-eruptions.
Earth Sciences
Sep 2, 2015
72
4937
The universe can be a very sticky place, but just how sticky is a matter of debate.
General Physics
Jun 30, 2015
91
11471
The electric eel - the scaleless Amazonian fish that can deliver an electrical jolt strong enough to knock down a full-grown horse - possesses an electroshock system uncannily similar to a Taser.
Plants & Animals
Dec 4, 2014
6
0
(Phys.org) —The sight of a tiny hummingbird hovering in front of a flower and then darting to another with lightning speed amazes and delights. But it also leaves watchers with a persistent question: How do they do it?
General Physics
Nov 23, 2014
1
0
