Pond sliders like the red-eared slider have become popular pets around the world because they are small, relatively inexpensive, and easy to take care of. These distinctive terrapins have a single small red stripe where one would expect their ears to be and can slide rapidly off logs and rocks […]

Originally found in the south-central United States and northeastern Mexico, red-eared slider turtles have become one of the most popular pets around the world. They are smaller than other turtle species, cost less, are easy to take care of, and can eat a wide variety of food. These terrapins have

Scientists believe that flowers have been around for more than 140 million years. Many flowers, and the plants they grow on, depend on insects and other pollinators to help them reproduce. To attract pollinators, flowers use smells, shape, color, showy petals, and, of course, size! So what is the largest

Are there volcanoes in the ocean? Both dry land and the “land” underneath the oceans are part of large, rocky plates that are made of the Earth’s crust and upper mantle – the topmost layers of the Earth, or lithosphere. Oceanic plates, which lie under the oceans, are made of

Living things use sound for communication, navigation, and even hunting. This requires ‘auditory perception’ – how our brain interprets the sounds in our environment. For many species, the ear is key to hearing –  scientists think that the middle ear in humans evolved from the gills of fish – is

Table of Contents Most of us, probably, have accidentally overwatered a houseplant at some point.   Like us, plants that live in soil need moisture to survive, but their roots require oxygen to breathe. If the soil inside the flowerpot gets too waterlogged, the roots begin to drown – and

Our species, Homo sapiens, is found all over the world. We have had such an outsized influence on our planet that our period of dominance has been given a name – the Anthropocene. But where did we come from, and what has given our species this much power over the

Introduction Since the 1980s, scientists have been working on identifying every part of the human . The sequence of the Y  has remained a mystery, and in the words of biological anthropologist Agnar Helgeson, “the most troublesome chromosome in our genome.”   That is, until now. Thanks to the efforts