Cash is pretty convenient.
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Paying for the stuff you want with currency is way easier than relying on chairs you made or chickens you raised.
Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland features around 40,000 exposed polygonal columns of basalt in perfect horizontal sections.
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Nature begins forming patterns at the molecular level – and sometimes they grow to enormous sizes.
Walking vertically – or even upside down – is a piece of cake for ants.
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Ant feet are equipped with an array of tools – from retractable sticky pads to claws to special spines and hairs – enabling them to defy gravity and grip virtually any surface.
Science shows that humans are happier and healthier around other animal and plant species.
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People wouldn’t last long without the countless other species we depend on for survival.
Solutions to Einstein’s famous equations back in the 20th century describe ‘wormholes,’ or tunnels through space-time.
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An astrophysicist explains what wormholes are and how these theoretical space-time tunnels have popped up in the solutions to a set of decadesold equations.
Dogs use their tails to communicate.
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An anthropologist explains some of the many ways animals use their tails, from balancing as they walk to attracting a mate.
Humans are the only animals that express their thoughts in full sentences.
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A language scientist explains that talking was never invented but has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years.
Apartment buildings in New York City abut the Cross Bronx Expressway.
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Noise pollution is a serious problem, and cars make a lot of it. But roads are also a factor.
A great hammerhead shark’s two eyes can be 3 feet apart on opposite sides of its skull.
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The first hammerhead shark was likely the result of a genetic deformity. A biologist explains how shark DNA reveals hammerheads’ history.
Reconstruction of Haikouichthys ercaicunensis based on fossil evidence.
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A biologist explains how researchers nail down the age of ancient fossils thanks to a physical process called radioactive decay.
A nanographene molecule imaged by noncontact atomic force microscopy.
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A physicist explains how atoms arrange themselves into molecules – and how scientists are able to image these tiny bits of matter that make up everything around you.
The core of education is to enable young learners to be kind, giving members of society.
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The core principle of education is to enable students to become kind, giving and contributing members of their community and the world.
During ice ages, ice sheets like the one in Greenland have covered much of Earth’s surface.
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The Earth has had at least five major ice ages, and humans showed up in time for the most recent one. In fact, we’re still in it.
Roaming the ancient seas eons ago, the megalodon shark eviscerated its prey with jaws that were 10 feet wide.
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A terrifying sight in ancient waters, the megalodon shark was once the most feared creature in the sea.
President William Howard Taft and his wife rode in this steam-powered automobile in 1909.
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This technology, popular when automobiles first caught on, had a short resurgence in the 1970s.
The Moon often looks enormous when it first rises because of what is known as the Moon illusion.
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The Moon illusion is what makes the Moon look giant when you see it rising over a distant horizon. An astronomer explains what causes this awe-inspiring trick of the mind.
Plastic trash accumulates in trees and shrubs along the Los Angeles River.
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Plastic is made from oil and natural gas, which started out as fossilized plant and animal material. But buried deep underground for millions of years, those materials changed in important ways.
Interior view of Polito’s Royal Menagerie, Exeter Change, Strand, Westminster, London, 1812.
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Historians aren’t sure exactly when the first zoo was built, but it’s clear humans have kept exotic animals for thousands of years.
An artist’s concept of an astronaut walking on Mars. But what would happen if the astronaut weren’t wearing a space helmet?
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Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and one of our closest neighbors in space. But it’s not a very welcoming place for an Earthling to visit.
Don’t call them tentacles: An octopus has eight arms.
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With nine brains, blue blood and a talent for camouflage, the octopus is one of the most fascinating creatures in the sea.