Science Lab

A bolt of lightning is about five times hotter than the surface of the Sun.

Some turtles can breathe through their bottoms — it helps them survive underwater all winter.

A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus — it spins that slowly.

There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on every beach on Earth.

The Eiffel Tower can grow more than 15 cm taller in summer because the metal expands in the heat.

Sound travels about four times faster through water than through air.

The human brain makes enough electricity to power a small light bulb.

Honey never spoils — archaeologists have found 3,000-year-old honey in Egyptian tombs that's still edible.

A record-breaking X-ray flash may reveal the birth of a magnetar

Astronomers have found strong evidence that some mysterious, minutes-long X-ray flashes are produced when two neutron stars collide and create a magnetar. One record-setting event glowed in X-rays for nearly 10 minutes, potentially opening a new way to find these extreme cosmic mergers.

Ocean heatwaves are hiding months of extra warming

Marine heatwaves may be only the most intense part of much longer warming events, with elevated temperatures sometimes lingering for months. Researchers found that conventional measurements underestimate total heat exposure by more than 150% on average, potentially overlooking a major source of stress on marine ecosystems.

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover finds groundwater, lakes, and hot fluids in one place

NASA’s Perseverance rover has uncovered a surprisingly complicated history of water in Jezero Crater. Scientists expected the crater’s Margin Unit to contain lake sediments, but instead found ancient igneous rocks that were altered by water on at least three separate occasions.

Pompeii’s 2,000-year-old eruption just gave scientists a better clock for Earth’s past

Mount Vesuvius’ famous 79 CE eruption has given scientists a remarkably precise benchmark for dating events deep in Earth’s past. The improved technique could sharpen the timelines of volcanic eruptions, asteroid impacts, extinctions, and other major moments in geological history.

Watch Live: NASA’s Crew-13 could make the fastest U.S. trip to the ISS ever

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission is scheduled to launch four astronauts to the International Space Station on October 1. The Dragon could reach the orbiting laboratory in just 7 hours and 50 minutes, making it the fastest U.S. spacecraft journey to the ISS in history.

Bats may have first evolved in Europe 65 million years ago

A huge genomic and fossil study suggests bats first evolved in Europe around 65 to 60 million years ago before spreading across the globe. The findings also indicate that flight and echolocation emerged near the beginning of bat evolution, potentially helping explain how bats became one of the most successful mammal groups on Earth.

NASA’s Curiosity rover just hit 5,000 days on Mars and sent back this stunning view

NASA’s Curiosity rover marked 5,000 Martian days by capturing morning and afternoon views that were blended into a striking Mars “postcard.” The panorama shows Curiosity, its tracks, and the enormous landscape surrounding Mount Sharp and Gale Crater.

This 245-million-year-old fossil still has its stomach and intestines

A 245-million-year-old marine reptile fossil preserves an astonishing amount of detail, including its stomach, liver, and intestines. The discovery reveals that Austronaga minuta was highly adapted for swimming even though its digestive system remained surprisingly simple.

The ice blasting from Saturn's moon Enceladus is stranger than scientists realized

Enceladus may naturally separate and concentrate chemicals from its hidden ocean as droplets slowly freeze and shatter on their way into space. The process could explain Cassini’s puzzling ice-grain chemistry while giving future spacecraft a powerful advantage in searching for organic compounds and clues to life.

Earth’s day isn’t exactly 24 hours. The reason may lie deep inside the planet

Scientists may have solved why the length of Earth’s day changes by a few milliseconds over decades. Subtle shifts in the inner core appear to tug on the mantle, revealing a surprisingly dynamic world thousands of kilometers beneath our feet.

NASA’s Crew-13 could go from Florida to the ISS in under 9 hours

NASA and SpaceX could launch four astronauts to the International Space Station on October 1, with the Dragon spacecraft reaching orbiting outpost less than nine hours after liftoff. Crew-13 will join Expedition 75 after teams complete a final round of intensive launch-readiness checks.

Scientists were wrong about this strange mammal for nearly 40 years

A beautifully preserved fossil from Mongolia’s Gobi Desert has solved a mystery that puzzled paleontologists for nearly 40 years. Tamirkhan balcarceli shows that zhelestids were not early relatives of modern placental mammals, despite having teeth that seemed to suggest they were. Instead, the rabbit-like animal belonged to a separate lineage of small Cretaceous mammals.

New soil test could reveal how soil microbes help feed plants

Scientists have streamlined a method for measuring DNA-bound phosphorus in soil, making it cheaper and easier while preserving its accuracy. The technique could reveal how soil microbes help recycle phosphorus and ultimately support more sustainable fertilizer and nutrient management.

1.7-billion-year-old fossils reveal a crucial clue to the rise of complex life

Scientists studying ancient Australian rocks uncovered more than 12,000 fossils from some of the oldest known eukaryotes on Earth. These early complex cells lived in settings ranging from coastal mudflats to the open sea, but only where oxygen was available. Oxygen-free environments contained simpler microbes instead. The findings strengthen the idea that oxygen played a crucial role in the…

These medieval graves looked like family burials. DNA told a different story

Ancient DNA shows that adults and children buried together in medieval Sweden were often not members of the same immediate family, suggesting that burial choices reflected more than biological kinship. The research also revealed early gender-based burial customs and uncovered the remarkable story of a young woman who may have completed a pilgrimage across Europe.

Scientists may have misread a 2-billion-year-old clue about Earth

Scientists have found that a famous 2-billion-year-old chemical signature, once thought to record a massive global change in Earth’s carbon cycle, may instead have been produced by local magma, hydrocarbons, and methane-eating microbes. The discovery raises new questions about what was really happening as oxygen transformed the young planet.