At just over a quarter of an inch long, the lowly spittlebug can nevertheless take mighty leaps to heights that can exceed 100 times its body length (see graphic).
Now scientists have uncovered the mechanism behind the high hops. Essentially it’s nature’s version of a technology the armies of King Tut and Genghis Khan would use […]

Scientists have found that tiny, soccer-ball-shaped carbon molecules dubbed “buckyballs” have a high potential to gather in the fatty tissue of animals. They could even migrate into fatty tissue more readily than the panned pesticide DDT, researchers suggest.
Unlike DDT, buckyballs are not known to be toxic, notes Chad Jafvert, a civil-engineering professor at Purdue University, […]

With all the focus on human-triggered global warming, it may be hard to imagine that the world is riding a 50-million-year-long cooling trend.
But it is, and blame the trend on a continental-scale collision, say geophysicists Dennis Kent of Rutgers University and Giovanni Muttoni of the University of Milan in Italy.
Researchers say there is strong evidence […]