A pregnant naked mole-rat queen, on the left, and a worker, on the right, sniff each other. Image Credit: Felix Petermann / Max Delbrück Center/Smithsonian Magazine Naked mole-rat queens appear to maintain their social order with the help of a chemical signal that keeps other females from reproducing. A study published in Nature has identified…
The Everglades faces a major challenge from non-native species that can change habitats, disrupt food webs, and make restoration harder. Several invasive plants already cover large areas, while animals such as the Burmese python have altered populations of native wildlife.Melaleuca, Brazilian pepper, Australian pine, and Old World climbing fern are among the damaging plants. Together,…
Representative Image of an agricultural field using plantain-based biodegradable mulch, illustrating reduced weed growth and improved soil conditions (AI Generated Image) A seventh-grade student in Puerto Rico has found a new use for plantain peels discarded by her school cafeteria, turning them into a bioplastic mulch that reduced weed growth by up to 53% in…
Scientists studying burned tropical peat swamp forests in Sumatra, Indonesia, found strangler figs exhibiting an unusual behaviour. They found that 97 percent of the strangler figs they counted grew directly from the ground rather than from the branches of host trees. The finding, published in February 2026 in the journal Ecology and Evolution, is notable…
PC: Society for Science/ Image AI generated Andrew Sun-Zhuang, a 7th grader at The Evergreen School in Shoreline, Washington, plays baseball and is constantly trying to improve his batting performance. His hit rate is 95 per cent against a batting machine but only 35 per cent in real life. According to the Society for Science,…
A seventh grader in Montana compared banana and plantain starch to develop a stronger bioplastic. Rye Lynn Rost, a student at Baker Junior High School in Baker, MT, wanted to create plastics from natural materials that could break down without losing their durability too quickly.For her project, she studied bioplastics made from plantains (Musa paradisiaca)…
Karl Deisseroth was working late on a research paper and had just gone to lie down when a call from Stockholm arrived with news that would change his night. The Stanford psychiatrist and scientist had been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, sharing the honour with Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for…
Experiments in mice found that declining CMA affects senescent cells and the macrophages that clear them. (Representational photo) Researchers studying ageing in mice have identified a cellular process that may help explain why what are called ‘zombie cells’ become harder for the body to remove as it gets older. The new study led by researchers…
The project included 27 concrete “oyster castle” breakwaters and 13 shell-bag reefs. In an unusual effort to protect an eroding stretch of New Jersey’s Delaware Bay shoreline, 40 constructed oyster reefs were installed at Gandy’s Beach Preserve between 2015 and 2016.A new study published in Frontiers in Marine Science examined the project along with other…
A seventh grader in New Jersey has built a device that can monitor meat freshness by tracking ammonia gas released as meat decays. Sartaj Singh Gandhi, a student at Monroe Township Middle School in Monroe Township, NJ, created the Meat Freshness Monitor after learning that many people check the expiry date or smell the meat…
