Simone Biles has nothing on this tiny backflipper. The globular springtail (Dicyrtomina minuta) is so small it could straddle the tip of a pencil. Yet this insect-like animal can vault…

Campfire (noun, “KAMP FYRE”) Campfires are small eruptions on the sun’s surface. They are similar to massive explosions known as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. But campfires…

Clouds form when water molecules in the air stick to certain tiny particles — think of them as seeds. Scientists have now discovered an unexpected source of those seeds. When…

Chimpanzees and bonobos have great memories for familiar faces. Research now suggests that these apes can recognize members of their own species. Not just day to day or month to…

Meteorologist Thea Sandmael watched the storm close in. It was near enough for her to spot a rotating dome of clouds emerging from the storm’s dark underbelly. By the time…

Along the southern coasts of Australia, flashy fish called seadragons sport leaflike lobes that help them blend into kelp and seagrass. Seadragons “are like the marine version of a koala…

Climate change is making extreme weather worse. It tripled the risk of Hurricane Harvey’s record rainfall over Texas in 2017. It made Australia’s devastating wildfires in 2019 and 2020 at…

Centuries ago, astronomers observed a dark oval — nicknamed the Permanent Spot — on Jupiter. It was located at the same latitude, or distance from Jupiter’s equator, where the giant…

THC (noun, “T-H-C”) THC is a chemical found in the plant cannabis, or marijuana. THC is short for delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol. It is the compound mainly responsible for cannabis’s psychoactive effects. That…