Blocks of ice can behave truly strangely. On some surfaces, melting ice needs no outside push to skate — or even seemingly slingshot itself around. How truly ghostly! The finding…

Benthic (adjective, “BEN-thik”) The word “benthic” refers to the bottom of a body of water, such as an ocean, lake or stream. The word comes from the Greek term “benthos,”…

If you were asked to choose a healthy snack, what would it be? Perhaps you’d opt for a tangy mango or cup of tart Greek yogurt topped with berries. Maybe…

Like underwater cities on the floor of tropical oceans, reefs are bustling hubs of activity. Corals — relatives of sea anemones and jellyfish — are the main builders of these…

Some tattoos really age well, a new study finds. More than 2,000 years ago, a woman sat down to get inked. Afterward, she rocked some sick tattoo sleeves. Her arms were…

“Dark energy” might sound like the kind of thing that ghost hunters would search for inside a haunted house. But dark energy has nothing to do with supernatural specters. It’s…

The broken wings of two pterosaur hatchlings point to how hundreds of their kind may have met an untimely end. If true, this would solve a cold-case millions of years…

Artifact (noun, “AR-ti-fact”) An artifact is something that has been made or modified by humans. In archaeology, artifacts are objects that tell us how people of the past lived. Ancient…

If you want to walk on water, it helps to have fancy feet. A type of water strider known as a ripple bug (Rhagovelia obesa) has frilly fans on its…