Science

Experiment Tests If Teacher-Student Relationship Helps Performance

8:14am October 13, 2015

A study measured the performance of kindergartners who either had close or distant relationships with their teachers. It found that students reminded of close relationships solved problems faster.

Queue Listen Now

Study May Ease Drinking Water Worries About Fracking

8:14am October 13, 2015

by Dan Charles

A new study of drinking water in areas where fracking is used to extract natural gas found that contamination is not common and it probably did not come from deep underground.

Queue Listen Now

Science

The Bacterial Cloud We All Carry Could Be As Unique As A Fingerprint

8:27am October 11, 2015

by Rob Stein

Scientists have discovered that everyone emits their own "microbiome cloud," a plume of the microbes we all carry around in and on our bodies.

Queue Listen Now

Baby spotted eagles open wide for the camera in the Polessye State Radioecological Reserve in Belarus.

Abandoned, But No Wasteland: Chernobyl Offers Animals Room To Thrive

5:42pm October 10, 2015

by NPR Staff

Nearly 30 years after a catastrophic nuclear meltdown, something interesting is happening in Chernobyl: In an environment long abandoned — and deemed unsafe — by humans, wildlife is flourishing.

Queue Listen Now

Harry Kroto, pictured in 1996, displays a model of the geodesic-shaped carbon molecules that he helped discover.

Science

'Buckyballs' Solve Century-Old Mystery About Interstellar Space

3:53pm October 09, 2015

by Joe Palca

Scientists have long wondered what's in the wispy cloud of gas floating in the space between the stars, absorbing starlight. Turns out it's a form of carbon named after architect Buckminster Fuller.

Queue Listen Now

Pluto's atmosphere has a haze of blue, in this color picture taken by the New Horizons spacecraft that was released by NASA.

Science

Why Is The Sky Blue? (On Pluto, That Is)

11:38am October 09, 2015

by Bill Chappell

Pluto's atmosphere has a blue haze, in a new photo from the New Horizons probe. But the particles causing that color are probably gray or red — and the planet's surface has red ice.

Could A Mushroom Save The Honeybee?

10:46am October 09, 2015

by Ken Christensen

The bees that pollinate crops are on the brink of collapse. One big reason why: a virus-carrying mite. Now, researchers think a rare fungi could boost bees' immune system and attack the mite itself.