Animals, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 30, 2010

Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches?

Woodpeckers hit their heads up to 20 times a second. But muscles, bones and an extra eyelid protect their small bird brains. Strong, dense muscles in the bird's neck give it strength to repeatedly thump its head. But it is extra muscles in the skull that keep the bird from...

Jun 30, 2010

Discovered: The Biggest Rat That Ever Lived

Watch out Heathcliff, there's a rat out there bigger than you. Or at least there was. Just a couple thousand years ago, the world's largest rat, weighing more than the average house cat, scuttled about what is now East Timor of Southeast Asia. The skeletal remains of the robust rodent...

May 31, 2010

Why Are Bedbugs Such a Problem?

Bedbugs are stubborn little beasts. They are a growing problem in cities across the United States, and experts are unsure of the safest way to go about exterminating these pesky insects. The federal government recently rejected Ohio officials' request to use an industrial pesticide to fight household infestations of bedbugs....

Apr 30, 2010

Why Do Bee Stings Hurt So Bad?

A mosquito bite? That's child's play. Spider bite? No problem. But a bee sting - heck, does it ever hurt! About 2 million people in the U.S. are allergic to the venom of stinging insects, according to WebMD, and even those who aren't allergic can be afraid because of the...

Apr 30, 2010

Flea-Sized Creatures Are Fastest Jumpers Known

Shrimp-like critters the size of fleas could be the champion jumpers of the animal kingdom, scientists now reveal. After analyzing high-speed video of three species of crustaceans known as copepods, researchers found that within milliseconds, each of these wee creatures could use its leaps to achieve speeds of a thousand...

Apr 30, 2010

Do Animals Like to Have Sex?

It's obvious that animals hook up, at least during mating season, but do they like it? According to experts, there are two answers: yes and it is impossible to know. Mosquitoes, I don't know, said Mark Bekoff, a University of Colorado biologist and author of The Emotional Lives of Animals...

Apr 30, 2010

'Dracula' Fish and Bombardier Worm Make Top 10 List

A dracula fish with canine-like fangs, a worm that launches glow-in-the-dark bombs and a psychedelic frogfish are among the Top 10 new species discovered in 2009, scientists just announced. The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and an international committee of taxonomists selected the species from around...

Apr 30, 2010

Shark Attacks Most Likely on Sunday in 6 Feet of Water

Shark attacks are most likely to occur on Sunday in less than 6 feet of water during a new moon, a new study finds. And there's good reason: That's when a lot of surfers are in the water. Not coincidentally, surfers wearing black-and-white suits are most likely to be attacked....

Apr 30, 2010

The Best Way to Calculate Dog Years

Dogs age more quickly than humans, and, as many of us can attest, sadly don't stick around for the entire life of their owners. The dog year measure is an attempt to quantify this difference in lifespans to give an age to our furry pets as if they were to...

Mar 31, 2010

What's the Missing Link?

The missing link is a term often thrown around by the media to describe fossils that are believed to bridge the evolutionary split between higher primates such as monkeys, apes, and humans. Many scientists cringe when it's used, because it often suggests far more importance and meaning a given discovery...

Feb 28, 2010

Dog DNA Diversity Helps Show How Genes Work

Dogs are possibly the most varied-looking mammal species on the planet. It's this diversity of looks that make man's best friend the perfect laboratory for connecting sets of genes to particular traits and understanding the molecular mechanisms that govern variation in dogs as well as humans and other mammals. The...

Feb 28, 2010

Dinosaurs Had Wrists Like Birds

The flexible wrists of birds that let them fold their wings have now been seen in dinosaurs well before flight, scientists find. Dinosaurs such as Velociraptor might have partly folded their feathered arms to protect such plumage from harm's way, researchers explained. The wrists and the feathers in the lineage...

Feb 28, 2010

Pigeons Beat Humans at Solving 'Monty Hall' Problem

Pigeons might do better than humans at game shows, at least on Let's Make A Deal. These new findings — involving the pigeons superior ability to solve a perplexing statistical problem — might in turn shed light on why humans are bad at solving certain kinds of problems, scientists added....

Feb 28, 2010

Do Pregnant Animals Get Morning Sickness?

Many pregnant animals display symptoms similar to those experienced by pregnant women. But not enough research has been done to determine whether pregnant animals suffer from actual morning sickness. The nausea and vomiting that two-thirds of women experience during pregnancy could be the body's way of protecting the fetus from...

Feb 28, 2010

Ancient Blind Snakes Hitched Ride on Drifting Continents

Blind snakes are small worm-like creatures that likely feel their way through underground homes by sensing chemicals through their skin. It turns out, these organisms have been around since 150 million years ago, when the supercontinent called Gondwana was just breaking up, according to new genetic research. The study suggests...