You’ve long heard that eating your biggest meal in the morning and your smallest meal at night is the best way to stay slim and trim. But what’s the truth? What does science say about optimal eating times for keeping the weight off and staving off cardiovascular disease, diabetes and a host of other chronic illnesses? Experts contend that while the quality of the food you eat is most important, the timing is a close second. Research shows that when people ate the same amount of calories each ...read more

It’s been long known that arthropods, meaning all animals with articulated limbs and bodies with segments, can rebuild legs and arms after a loss, according to Gerhard Scholtz, a comparative zoologist at Humboldt University Berlin. For instance, when crustaceans are attacked they can even break off their injured leg themselves, and sacrifice it to survive. And a growing body of research into the molecular mechanisms behind regeneration seems to suggest that there’s no one-size-fits-all come ...read more

For years, organizational expert Marie Kondo advised people to declutter their homes. An object that didn't "spark joy" needed to be let go, and a person had to be mindful not to "relapse into clutter" by buying things they truly didn't need. Kondo recently admitted her own relapse into clutter. She told a reporter from The Washington Post, "My home is messy." She's now the parent of three young children, and culling her bookshelves is no longer a priority. Household clutter is such a uni ...read more

In the fifth century B.C., Hippocrates first reported a disease with “flu-like symptoms” spreading across northern Greece. Years later, in Renaissance Florence, around A.D. 1300 a flu virus called “influenza di freddo” hit the Italian city with a vengeance. History shows that we’ve been dealing with the flu for thousands of years, while COVID-19 is a comparably new contagion. Still, according to experts, the flu has provided the groundwork for how we might respond to COVID-19 in the f ...read more

Researchers at the Museum of Archaeology and Paleontology in Madrid, Spain have uncovered a chamber of a cave filled with 35 skulls of long-dead herbivores. The skulls are assumed to have been placed there by groups of Neanderthals, a close relative to the modern human. Read More: Who Were the Neanderthals? The cave, known as the Cueva Des-Cubierta, is in the north Madrid region of Spain. Researchers initially discovered it in 2009, but this collection of skulls was not found until recently – ...read more

Though many dog owners may not be aware of it, our canine friends can develop dementia too. Dementia in dogs — also known as canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome — often follows a similar pattern of development as it does in humans, says Gary Landsberg, a veterinary behaviorist and senior veterinary scientific director with the research organization CanCog. Read More: We’re Not Alone: Animals Suffer From Mental Health Issues Too “Dogs have neurodegenerative disease disorders that they d ...read more

A growing body of research is making some surprising discoveries about insects. Honeybees have emotional ups and downs. Bumblebees play with toys. Cockroaches have personalities, recognize their relatives and team up to make decisions. Fruit flies experience something very like what we might call fear. Read More: Bumble Bees Like To Play Just For Fun Insects having emotions is not a new idea. In 1872, in The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Charles Darwin wrote, "Even inse ...read more

The world was an unrecognizable place more than 2.45 billion years ago. But for most of the tiny organisms that lived on the planet at the time, things were just fine; at least, until the cyanobacteria started to proliferate.   As a result, these photosynthetic bacteria began to produce oxygen — so much of it that the tiny microbes sparked the "Great Oxidation Event" that infused the gas into our atmosphere. “You could argue that that’s the biggest poisoning event of Earth’s history,� ...read more

On Sunday, February 12, the Philadelphia Eagles will face the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII in Phoenix, AZ! Below, find ways to learn about eagles (and other birds) from almost anywhere; and discover where to check out a free kit from libraries in Missouri (Kansas City is in Missouri after all) to help measure light pollution. Leading up to the Super Bowl, the Science Cheerleaders, who were recently featured on the cover of Diversity in STEAM Magazine, will be busy with events in Phoen ...read more

Physiologically, human adolescents are late bloomers on many fronts: learning to walk, securing and preparing their own food, and reproducing sexually. And that’s especially true for the development process inside our heads.  Even after a young adult has finished growing, perhaps married or claimed independence by most social standards, their brain typically continues developing — until they reach their mid- to late 20s. Adolescence, in fact, spans from the age of 10 until at least age 24, ...read more