More from Lauren Leffer (Page 3)

birds have culture

Birds have ‘culture.’ Just look at these nests.

By Lauren Leffer

water flowing from pipes

How heavy rain can make you sick

By Lauren Leffer

glacier ice core

Over 1,700 frozen viruses found in a Tibetan glacier

By Lauren Leffer

snoring sleep apnea partner hears it

Sleepy and snoring? You may have sleep apnea.

By Lauren Leffer

cellular shades

Ditch your old blinds for cellular shades

By Lauren Leffer

West Nile Virus cases are on the rise again: How to protect yourself

By Lauren Leffer

Roach sprays don’t work

By Lauren Leffer

The Darvaza Gas Crater is actually man-made: in the 1970s, Soviet engineers were doing gas explorations in the area, and made a whole mass of land sink in to reveal Darvaza. They subsequently set the sinkhole on fire - it has been burning to this day and remains a major tourist attraction.

Earth is covered in ‘Gates of Hell’

By Lauren Leffer

A deceased blue tit is being held in a womans hand

More than a billion birds could be dying from flying into buildings each year in US

By Lauren Leffer

Pouring cooking oil from bottle into frying pan, closeup

What science actually says about seed oils

By Lauren Leffer

A rare visitor, a Mandarin Duck, showed up in Central Park, New York City in 2018.

Why are there so many birds?

By Lauren Leffer

Nine-banded Armadillo, Dasypus novemcinctus, in water, Santa Clara Ranch, southern Texas, United States.

‘Chaos is the norm now:’ The blurry line between invasive and range-expanding species

By Lauren Leffer

Tree bark demonstrates an unexpected climate superpower

By Lauren Leffer

view from airplane

Climate change is making turbulence worse

By Lauren Leffer

This rotifer has just survived a life-threatening infection. When a fungal disease attacked, she switched on hundreds of genes that her ancestors copied from microbes, including antibiotic recipes stolen from bacteria.

No sex? No problem. These tiny, asexual animals steal genes to make their own medicine

By Lauren Leffer

Millions Of Red Crabs Make Their Way To Ocean As Part Of Annual Migration On Christmas Island

Millions of crabs scuttle across this island every year

By Lauren Leffer

What’s going on with spotted lanternflies?

By Lauren Leffer

The newly described Guianan long-nosed armadillo.

A new armadillo species was hiding in plain sight

By Lauren Leffer

Green and gold bell frogs in artificial hotspot shelter.

Frog saunas could help the amphibians cope with a deadly fungus

By Lauren Leffer

Yes, humans are still evolving

By Lauren Leffer

cows crowded indoors at a farm

Can we prevent a bird flu pandemic in humans?

By Lauren Leffer

An orange tree stays next to a damaged buildings in Antakya, Hatay province, on February 5, 2024, after one year the February 2023 earthquake. The disaster, which killed more than 53,500 people in Turkey and nearly 6,000 in Syria, was the region's deadliest in many centuries. (Photo by Ozan KOSE / AFP) (Photo by OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images)

New data on ‘the Big One’ offers a clearer view of inevitable earthquake catastrophe

By Lauren Leffer

A huge thermokarst crater showing the damage to the permafrost and our climate, Batagay, Russia.

Earth’s ‘Gateway to Hell’ is growing

By Lauren Leffer

Carrion crow (Corvus corone) perched on wooden fence post and calling. (Photo by: Sven-Erik Arndt/Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Crows can ‘count’ similarly to toddlers, according to new study

By Lauren Leffer

Making babies may take 10 times more energy than we thought

By Lauren Leffer

Six layers of excitatory neurons colored by depth - the human brain

See the most detailed map of human brain matter ever created

By Lauren Leffer

Lab mice might be doing their own experiments

By Lauren Leffer

Anterior trunk vertebrae of Vasuki indicus.

Enormous snake in ancient India was longer than a school bus

By Lauren Leffer

How big rats took over North America

By Lauren Leffer

Hyenas’ social status shines through in their poop

Hyenas’ social status shines through in their poop

By Lauren Leffer

a photograph of a dog EEG experimental setup

New evidence suggests dogs may ‘picture’ objects in their minds, similarly to people

By Lauren Leffer

A pair of mountain goats camera trapped walking along a hiking trail near Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Canada.

Nature wasn’t healing: What really happened with wildlife during pandemic lockdowns

By Lauren Leffer

Siphonops annulatus. Mother with babies starting skin pigmentation.

These legless, egg-laying amphibians secrete ‘milk’ from their butts

By Lauren Leffer

Swarm of invasive Apis cerana in Cairns, North Queensland.

How a single honey bee colony led to a species invasion

By Lauren Leffer

An eyelash pitviper from the New Wold tropics.

Why are there so many snakes?

By Lauren Leffer

Aerial View Of Reforestation And Forest

When planting trees is bad for the planet

By Lauren Leffer

Photo illustration of hawkmoth navigating to flower during vehicle exhaust emission.

Air pollution messes with moths’ ability to smell flowers

By Lauren Leffer

Elephants navigate a landscape invaded by big-headed ants at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia, Kenya. Following invasion by big-headed ants, whistling-thorn trees are rendered vulnerable to elephants, whose browsing and breaking of trees promotes savanna openness.

Invasive ants leave lions scrambling for prey on the savannah in an ecological chain reaction

By Lauren Leffer

A new evolutionary theory could explain the mystery of shrinking animals

A new evolutionary theory could explain the mystery of shrinking animals

By Lauren Leffer

A visual collage of skin fossils described in the new study. The mummified skin specimen is shown sliced into two pieces in the center-left of the image. The surrounding specimen scans are of fossilized skin impressions.

Oldest known fossilized reptile skin was dug up in an Oklahoma quarry

By Lauren Leffer

11 people are pictured running in a group on a rain-slicked road from the waist down. Most are wearing black shorts, the leader is wearing black, full length leggings. Their legs are muscular and their shoes are all bright colors like neon greens, blues, cherry red, and purple.

4 high-tech running shoes that could help Tokyo Olympians hit record-breaking times

By Lauren Leffer

Cracked cap bolete mushroom foraged in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York City

An urban cemetery is a surprising sanctuary for fantastic fungi

By Lauren Leffer

Empty cups, both plastic and paper, take out containers, straws, and other trash sit in a multi-colored pile. Starbucks, Nathans, Dunkin Donuts, and Canada Dry logos are visible on some of the items.

Your compostable cups and containers aren’t reversing the plastic problem

By Lauren Leffer

Venus as a white dome in the background, a camera in the left foreground, in black and white.

A probe destined for Mercury ended up rubbernecking Venus

By Lauren Leffer

Two women sit cross-legged, facing each other on a beige sofa. They are each holding a white mug and look absorbed in conversation.

How to talk to your vaccine-hesitant friends and family

By Lauren Leffer

A man wearing a grey suit and glasses has a white surgical mask partially covering his mouth and chin. He is walking down a cobblestone street facing towards the camera while others walk facing the other way. It is nighttime and a building and street vendor are in the background.

As Olympics continue, Japan struggles with its largest COVID spike yet

By Lauren Leffer

A dark haired person wearing a black and white patterned mask with a red backpack stands in a grocery store aisle, holding up a smartphone in one hand and running their other hand through their hair. They are looking intently at an array of colorful packaged foods.

What the CDC’s new mask guidance means for you

By Lauren Leffer

A red-eyed, black-bodied cicada with amber legs and wings perches on a brown stick facing towards the camera. The cicada's head is in sharp focus while the rest of the image blurs into the green background.

Baby Brood X cicadas are headed underground. What lies ahead is still a mystery.

By Lauren Leffer

A child wearing a dark t-shirt and striped leggings climbs a playground structure. The child and structure are greyscale against a yellow, beige, black, pink, and green abstract background.

The elements that make a perfect playground

By Lauren Leffer

COVID cases are plaguing the Olympics even before they’ve begun

By Lauren Leffer

A doctor with a mask on hold a COVID vaccine vial

All three US COVID vaccines protect against the Delta variant

By Lauren Leffer

10 absolutely wild facts about babies

10 absolutely wild facts about babies

By Lauren Leffer

A 3-D rendering of a human-like skull faces forward against a black background. The skull is a tan color and has a pronounced brow ridge, large nose cavity, and square-ish eye sockets. The lower jaw is absent.

The debate over ‘Dragon Man’ shows that human origins are still kind of messy

By Lauren Leffer

A large piece of granite rock glows in bright green and crimson red stripes behind glass and against the dark background of a museum exhibit. A few illegible, backlit display signs surround the large rock.

How minerals and rocks reflect rainbows, glow in the dark, and otherwise blow your mind

By Lauren Leffer

A speckled, white, beige, and lemon yellow gecko sits against a blue background.

These popular pet lizards may hold the key to studying skin cancer

By Lauren Leffer

A furry looking, ground-hog like creature climbs onto a rock from the forest floor surrounded by leaf litter and tree saplings at night.

Elephants can add a cuddly new cousin to their family tree

By Lauren Leffer

Man is getting vaccine in arm

Novavax’s COVID vaccine might be key for vaccinating the world

By Lauren Leffer

One side of a reddish-brown brick building, with 15 windows arranged in a grid on the façade, each containing a separate window air conditioning unit.

How to prevent your window AC unit from falling out, and other cool tips

By Lauren Leffer

A person wearing a baseball cap and tan jacket holds a pair of green, silver, and yellow pruning shears up to a tree branch, read to cut.

Humans have become the biggest selection force in evolution

By Lauren Leffer

Water is poured into a short, clear glass from above against a blue background.

Worsening droughts could increase arsenic exposure for some Americans

By Lauren Leffer

A bumble bee drinks nectar from a purple cone flower.

City gardens are abuzz with imperiled native bees

By Lauren Leffer

Black and yellow social wasps build a geometric nest.

Why some bees and wasps are more likely to sting you

By Lauren Leffer

A Brown hen sits on a nest of straw and one brown egg in a particle board compartment. A white egg sits nearby.

Even from inside their shells and wombs, embryos are listening

By Lauren Leffer

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