Researchers are calling it the “Goldilocks Effect”: Turns out that babies’ brains are wired to focus on “just right” experiences and information to help them learn. In a fascinating new study from the University of Rochester, 7- and 8-month-olds quickly lost interest in video animations of balls, pacifiers and colorful boxes that were too ho-hum…
Millions of years ago, oversized insects like griffinflies boasting wingspans comparable to today’s hawks scuttled across (and fluttered above) the planet. But why these jumbo jets of the insect world shrunk to modern size has remained a mystery, until now. Turns out, as dinosaurs evolved flight and eventually took to the skies as birds, they…
Nearly 20,000 species of animals and plants around the globe are considered high risks for extinction in the wild. That’s according to the most authoritative compilation of living things at risk — the so-called Red List maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This should keep us awake at night. By generalizing from…
Just over 1,200 years ago, the planet was hit by an extremely intense burst of high-energy radiation of unknown cause, scientists studying tree-ring data have found. The radiation burst, which seems to have hit between AD 774 and AD 775, was detected by looking at the amounts of the radioactive isotope carbon-14 in tree rings…
Results of a recent experiment demonstrated that students who read material in difficult, unfamiliar fonts learned it more deeply than students who read the same material in conventional, familiar fonts. Strange as that may seem, the finding stems from a well-established principle in learning theory called cognitive disfluency, which has fascinating implications for teachers. As the…
A new study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute suggests that the replication process for DNA—the genetic instructions for living organisms that is composed of four bases (C, G, A and T)—is more open to unnatural letters than had previously been thought. An expanded “DNA alphabet” could carry more information than natural DNA,…
Some scientists advocate pumping aerosols into the atmosphere to counter global warming by reflecting solar energy away. But according to Carnegie Institution scientists, the price we’d have to pay is the loss of the Earth’s blue skies. Blocking 2% of the sun’s light, they say, would make the sky three to five times brighter, and…
Despite the fact that today’s kids have less time to play than previous generations, children’s creative play has increased, recent research finds. The study seems to oppose earlier findings that children’s creativity has dropped since the 1990s. However, it’s possible that increased creativity in play isn’t translating to creativity in other activities, Case Western University…
Geologists have long known that Earth’s core, some 1,800 miles beneath our feet, is a dense, chemically doped ball of iron roughly the size of Mars and every bit as alien. It’s a place where pressures bear down with the weight of 3.5 million atmospheres, like 3.5 million skies falling at once on your head,…
And now for some good news. The data are strangely absent from most discussions about the inadequacies of science education in the United States. But a new report from the National Science Foundation (NSF) finds that the number of Americans pursuing advanced degrees in science and engineering has risen sharply over the past decade and…