Maria Temming
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Articles by Maria Temming
Let’s learn about hydrogels
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These tiny snakes cartwheel to escape danger
Cartwheeling seems like it should require both arms and legs. But some itty-bitty snakes in Southeast Asia manage it without either. Scientists first shared snapshots of a dwarf reed snake (Pseudorabdion longiceps) cartwheeling away from danger in 2023. Now, videos of three Pseudorabdion species hightailing it down a racetrack in the lab have offered a closer look at this rare and strangely acrobatic behavior.
Let’s learn about origami-inspired science
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Let’s learn about trace fossils
Share this: Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens in new window) X Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share to Google Classroom (Opens in new window) Google Classroom Print (Opens in new window) Print When you hear the word “fossil,” you might at first think of a dinosaur skeleton at your local museum.
This ‘anti-vampiric’ grave used two strategies to stop the undead
Someone in 17th century Poland really did not want one particular girl rising from the dead. In 2022, archaeologists unearthed an unsettling grave in a cemetery in Pień, north-central Poland. A young woman had been buried with the handle of a sickle driven into the dirt beside her neck so that its serrated blade hooked over her throat. The woman, who the researchers call Zosia, also wore a triangular padlock on the big toe of her left foot.
Watch an orca smash into a sunfish hard enough to make it explode
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Let’s learn about humanmade seismic waves
Share this: Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens in new window) X Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share to Google Classroom (Opens in new window) Google Classroom Print (Opens in new window) Print In August 2023, some 70,000 people flocked to a stadium in Inglewood, Calif., for a Taylor Swift concert.
What to know about using AI chatbots for therapy
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Watch an orca ram into a sunfish so hard it explodes
Orcas have been known to slap around stingrays, punt seals into the air and otherwise play with their food. But killer whales don’t just toy with live prey. Some also seem to enjoy destroying the carcasses of their kills like piñatas. Scientists documented this brutal activity among orcas (Orcinus orca) in the Gulf of California in 2024 and 2025.
King cobras may be riding trains across India [COMIC]
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How Fans Make Fictional Languages Real
Almost any day of the week, you can attend a class on Na’vi, the language spoken by the Pandoran aliens in James Cameron’s Avatar films. Despite being designed for fictional speakers and only appearing in short exchanges onscreen, Na’vi is a fully functional language. People were angling to study it before the first Avatar movie even came out; now, some 16 years and two sequels later, the Na’vi learning community is bigger and busier than ever.
Trying to break a photon would create a quantum mess
Share this: Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens in new window) X Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share to Google Classroom (Opens in new window) Google Classroom Print (Opens in new window) Print When it comes to making a mess, not even the world’s crumbliest cookie would compare to a photon. Photons are fundamental particles of light.
Here’s what would happen if you tried to break a photon in half
If you think breaking a Nature Valley granola bar makes a mess, try a photon. As fundamental particles, photons can’t really be cleaved into smaller pieces. But if you tried cracking a light particle in half, physicists calculate that you wouldn’t just end up with a second photon. Rather, up to an infinite number of new photons would crumble out, the researchers report in a paper accepted to Physical Review Letters. Daniele Faccio’s first-glance reaction to the study was: nonsense.
Let’s learn about wetlands
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Seismic data captured the sound of awe during a solar eclipse
Seismic data have captured the tense quiet of the COVID-19 lockdowns and the thunderous excitement of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. And now, another human experience has been written in seismic signals: the shock and awe of witnessing a total solar eclipse. As a solar eclipse swept across North America on April 8, 2024, there was a lull in seismic vibrations across the continent, a new analysis shows — at least in places where the spectacle stopped human observers in their tracks.
A new shield could guard AI agents against cyberattacks
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Do multiple universes exist?
Share this: Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens in new window) X Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share to Google Classroom (Opens in new window) Google Classroom Print (Opens in new window) Print The Marvel Cinematic Universe really should be called the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse. In the films, alternate realities can be created and destroyed.
Let’s learn about adrenaline
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How to invent a realistic language for fictional speakers
The distant moon Pandora from James Cameron’s Avatar films is a feast of sci-fi world-building. Dragonlike creatures prowl the skies. Supersmart whalelike beasts write poetry under the sea. And a splendid variety of jungle plants glows multicolor in the dark. Cameronʼs famously stunning visual effects can make these ecosystems appear vivid enough to touch.
How to invent a realistic language for fictional speakers
7 hours ago We have seen a lot of players go down with injuries in the early part of the season. Some important fantasy players who are currently on the injured list include Juan Soto, Mookie Betts, and Hunter Brown. As we try to help fantasy managers make up for their absences, let’s highlight five players to …
Teen engineer finds eco-friendly way to fight harmful algal blooms
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Check out some of the best pics from the Artemis II mission
Share this: Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens in new window) X Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share to Google Classroom (Opens in new window) Google Classroom Print (Opens in new window) Print The Artemis II astronauts have safely returned from their historic voyage around the moon.
Let’s learn about the platypus
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Supermassive black holes might trace back to huge, ancient stars
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Let’s learn about Venus
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Let’s learn about animals that can regrow body parts
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A new cell model could help kids and teens with arthritis
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Let’s learn how to make a sports ball soar
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Let’s learn about Tyrannosaurus rex
Share this: Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share to Google Classroom (Opens in new window) Google Classroom Click to print (Opens in new window) Print An iconic scene in the classic 1993 film Jurassic Park begins with water glasses shaking on a dashboard.
Precise golf tee placement can improve drives, teen finds
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Butt breathing might help people struggling to get enough oxygen
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Let’s learn about viruses
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Do multiverses exist? Physics says: Maybe.
Sci-fi loves a multiverse. Everyone from Rick and Morty to Spider-Man has stepped through a portal and met their alter egos. My personal favorite use of this trope comes from the sitcom Community, where a simple die roll splits our heroes into seven alternate timelines. After the inhabitants of the “darkest timeline” suffer spectacular, meme-worthy misfortune, they turn evil and don fake goatees to match their new dastardly personas.
Here’s why ammolite gems have a rainbow shimmer
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Let’s learn about life forms that have survived in space
Share this: Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share to Google Classroom (Opens in new window) Google Classroom Click to print (Opens in new window) Print Plenty of species have gone to space. Monkeys and dogs were among the first astronauts and cosmonauts.
Hypnosis isn’t magic. It’s the brain at work
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Origami folds let paper support 9,000 times its weight, teen finds
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How to levitate objects sans magic
In fiction, magic makes levitation easy. With a simple swish-and-flick of his wand, Ron Weasley yanks a troll’s club high above its head in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Through graceful martial arts, element benders in TV’s Avatar series launch boulders and waves of water skyward. And a casual gesture is all Marvel hero Scarlet Witch needs to fling away enemies. In the real world, sound, magnets and electricity can all create upward forces strong enough to cancel out gravity.
Here’s how to levitate something without magic
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How to invent a language - like that of Avatar’s Na’vi
Share this: Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share to Google Classroom (Opens in new window) Google Classroom Click to print (Opens in new window) Print The distant moon Pandora from the Avatar movies is a richly immersive alien world. Dragon-like creatures prowl the skies.
Rudolph’s red nose could glow through bioluminescence
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Liquid from African tulip trees may protect honeybees from pests
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Let’s learn about autumn leaves
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‘Butt breathing’ could help people who can’t get oxygen the regular way
Takanori Takebe is on a mission to find out if people can breathe through their butts. As a medical doctor and stem cell biologist, Takebe spends most of his time trying to develop lab-made livers to treat organ failure. His side quest to explore backside breathing began several years ago, when his father caught pneumonia and had to be put on a ventilator.
Here's how Rudolph's light-up nose might be possible
This time of year, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is a nearly inescapable earworm. Rudolph, the old song goes, is bullied for having a nose so bright it glows (like a lightbulb!). But one Christmas Eve, his much-mocked nose makes Rudolph a hero. Using it as a beacon, Rudolph guides Santa’s flying sleigh through the foggy night to deliver gifts around the world. Rudolph’s superbright snout might seem as fantastical as his ability to fly. But a light-up body part needs no holiday magic.
Listening to slightly different sounds in each ear may boost focus, teen finds
attention: The phenomenon of focusing mental resources on a specific object or event. digit: (in math) An individual numeral (from 0 to 9) used to represent a number or some part of a number. focus: (in behavior) To look or concentrate intently on some particular point or thing. illusion: A thing that is or is likely to be wrongly perceived or interpreted by the senses. random: Something that occurs haphazardly or without reason, based on no intention or purpose.
Ants are better team players than people
Groups of ants seem to be smarter than the sum of their parts. But for groups of humans, that’s not always the case. In lab experiments, scientists gave longhorn crazy ants (Paratrechina longicornis) and people the same puzzle. The goal was to get a weirdly shaped object through a tight maze along as short a path as possible. Ofer Feinerman and his colleagues ran this two-species tournament at the Weizmann Institute of Science. That’s in Rehovot, Israel.
What causes the rainbow shimmer of ammolite gems?
The jewels nabbed in the Louvre heist may still be at large, but scientists have just closed the case on another gemstone mystery: what gives rare ammolite gems their rainbow shimmer. Ammolite comes from the fossilized shells of extinct squidlike critters called ammonites. Scientists knew the secret to the fossils’ flamboyant appearance lay somewhere in their layers of nacre, or mother-of-pearl.
Let’s learn about surprising uses for human waste
astronaut: Someone trained to travel into space for research and exploration. bacteria: (singular: bacterium) Single-celled organisms. These dwell nearly everywhere on Earth, from the bottom of the sea to inside other living organisms (such as plants and animals). Bacteria are one of the three domains of life on Earth. calcium: A chemical element and alkali metal common in minerals of the Earth’s crust and in sea salt.
AI shouldn’t be trusted with your mental health, teen finds Original
artificial intelligence: A type of knowledge-based decision-making exhibited by machines or computers. The term also refers to the field of study in which scientists try to create machines or computer software capable of intelligent behavior. bias: The tendency to hold a particular perspective or preference that favors some thing, some group or some choice. Scientists often “blind” subjects to the details of a test (don’t tell them what it is) so that their biases will not affect the results.
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