Science & Technology

A black spider with white dots just went scuttling past you in the garden and you wonder if you should be worried. Most of the black spiders with white spots you’ll find are a type of jumping spider and are…

The inchworm, the larval phase of a North American moth species, goes through four stages during its life cycle: egg, larvae, pupae and adult. The name applies to not just one, but thousands of moth species in the family Geometridae…

​Grassland ecosystems​ are land areas dominated by grasses that have very few or no woody shrubs or trees. ​Temperate grasslands​ are characterized by their lack of trees and extreme temperature ranges between summer and winter. Despite their lack of trees,…

Earthworms play an important role in many ecosystems, breaking down rotting organic matter into its simple components for use by plants. While earthworms may seem simple because they lack many visible external organs, they have complex inner organs including five…

A circle is a geometric form of which every point on the outside of the circle is the same distance away from the center. The distance around the edge of the circle is called the circumference. The distance from one…

Grasslands make up one of Earth’s major terrestrial biomes. Dominated by grasses and shaped by other biotic factors, different types of grasslands exist in tropical and temperate climates. Tropical grasslands cover much of Africa, Australia, South America and India, including…

If you live in the United States or the United Kingdom, you might encounter a measurement known as the square yard. (In other parts of the world, you’d be much more likely to encounter the square meter.) A square yard…

Almost everyone watches clouds, among the most fascinating and easily observed of all weather phenomena. Clouds form through the process of condensation when water vapor, primarily from the oceans, rises into the atmosphere where it cools and condenses into cloud…

Thousands of forms of water contribute to the beauty of the United States. These range from the major oceans to bays, sounds, inlets, rivers, streams, straits, ponds, falls, creeks and tributaries across the 50 states. Exploring them all could take…

Some animals – horses, say, or rabbits – eat only plants (herbivores), others – such as tigers or pythons – only meat (carnivores), but omnivores aren’t so choosy: They consume both plant and animal matter. Omnivores often boast less-specialized dentition,…