How Does Ice Cool Drinks? Heres something we tend to take for granted: drop a few ice cubes into a glass of water at room temperature, and in a few minutes the water will cool. How does this work? Heat is a measure of molecular activity: the faster a...
Dear A Moment of Science, I know that humans and chimps share something like 98 percent of our DNA. But what does this really mean? At least on the surface, humans and chimps seem very different we live in houses, they live in trees. We use complex l...
Americans Heads Are Getting Bigger The story of human evolution goes something like this: Millions of years ago, homo sapiens began to evolve from the prehistoric ancestor we share with our monkey cousins. First, we evolved the ability to walk uprigh...
If blood didnt circulate through our bodies, carrying oxygen and nutrients, we wouldnt be able to live. Blood is so important to life that the body constantly makes new blood. To do this, the body must produce the liquid part of blood, called plasma,...
Parents Model Healthy Eating It should come as no surprise that the more stressed parents are at work, the greater the burden on their family. Its also probably not a surprise that this dynamic can negatively affect a familys nutrition. After all, th...
Create Your Own Moon Craters! What makes science really fun is when you get to do things yourself, so today were going to be making moon craters. Theyre the roundish blast-marks left on the moons surface by ancient meteorites. The moons surface is co...
How People In Greenland Learn How To Count Kids learn to count on their fingers, because theyre so, well, handy! And it makes sensemost number systems originally developed as people counted using their fingers. The counting system of native Greenland...
The Mysterious Liquid In Yogurt When you open a container of yogurt, youll often see liquid collected on top. Some people mix it back into the yogurt, and others drain it off. What is it, and where does it come from? To solve the mystery of the liqui...
The History Of Smallpox In Shakespeares day, wishing a pox on someone was a terrible curse. Ten percent of the population in 17th century London died gruesomely of smallpox, a virus spread easily by airborne particles or contaminated clothing. Infect...