https://kidzsearch.com/news A place where kids can share and discuss cool things with others. Fri, 27 Feb 2026 07:30:00 PST en https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/as-toddlers--chimps-are-major-risk-takers/ https://www.snexplores.org/article/toddler-chimps-risk-taking-behavior



Toddlers are the daredevils of the chimp world.



Those 2 to 5 years old are more likely than older chimps to free-fall from treetops or leap wildly from branch to branch. Past age 5, such dangerous behaviors decrease by about 3 percent each year.



Researchers shared these new observations in January in iScience. 



Among humans, teens are the real daredevils. Compared to younger children, for instance, theyre more likely to break bones or die from injuries. Kids might want to behave as recklessly as chimp toddlers but rarely get the chance. Parents and caregivers are likely to put a stop to such fun and the risk of broken bones among human toddlers.



If humans scaled back their oversight, our kids would be way more daredevilish, says biologist Lauren Sarringhaus. An author of the new study, she works at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va.





No monkeying around



Human and chimp caregivers show different patterns. Chimp moms largely parent alone. Dads dont help. Nor, typically, do grandmothers, older siblings or other group members. Youngsters cling to their moms for the first five years of life. But by age 2 or so, young chimps begin to explore some on their own. Moms cant readily help kids swinging high up in the air.



Lets learn about chimpanzees and bonobos



Human children, by comparison, have caregivers beyond their parents. Called alloparents, these include teachers and coaches at supervised after-school activities. As such, todays kids spend less time unsupervised and playing outside than those in generations past. Some human-development experts criticize the rise of this type of intensive, or helicopter, parenting.



The new data point to really exciting research on how caregiving influences risk-taking behavior. Theres not a lot of research out there addressing this point, says Lou Haux. Shes a psychologist who studies primate behavior. Haux, who did not take part in the new study, works at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. Thats in Berlin, Germany.



Risky moves



Sarringhaus and her team studied more than 100 chimps. Part of the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project in Ugandas Kibale National Park, they ranged in age from 2 to 65. The researchers observed the apes swinging through the tree canopy. Along the way, they measured how often each member lost contact with tree branches. That included falling to a lower branch or leaping across a gap to another branch.



Chimps 2 to 5 years old were three times more likely than adults (15 and older) to take risks. Teens aged 10 to 14 were no chumps either. These chimps still engaged in such behaviors twice as often as adults.




.cheat-sheet-cta {
border: 1px solid #ffffff;
margin-top: 20px;
background-image: url("https://www.snexplores.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/12/cta-module@2x-2048x239-1.png");
padding: 10px;
clear: both;
}





Do you have a science question? We can help!



Submit your question here, and we might answer it an upcoming issue of Science News Explores




Risky maneuvers in tall trees come with a tradeoff, though. Roughly a third of chimpanzees show signs of past bone breaks, other research shows. But toddlerhood may be an ideal time for dangerous exploration.



Smaller chimps and humans have flexible bones and are relatively lighter weight than bigger ones. Thats why they are less likely than adults to suffer grave injuries from falls.



But, Sarringhaus says, my goal is not for this to lead to parenting advice.



Instead, Haux adds, this sort of research helps put human parenting in broader perspective, such as: How did all this evolve?




]]> Fri, 27 Feb 2026 08:30:00 PST kidzsearch Pets & Animals 0 0 0 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/as-toddlers--chimps-are-major-risk-takers/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/here-are-some-toys-you-might-see-everwhere-part-2/ https://net.kidzsearch.com/here-are-some-toys-you-might-see-everwhere-part-2/ Thu, 26 Feb 2026 23:44:38 PST kidzsearch Pets & Animals 0 0 0 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/here-are-some-toys-you-might-see-everwhere-part-2/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/favorite-stephen-king-book-or-book-in-general/ https://net.kidzsearch.com/favorite-stephen-king-book-or-book-in-general/ Thu, 26 Feb 2026 23:44:30 PST kidzsearch Pets & Animals 0 0 0 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/favorite-stephen-king-book-or-book-in-general/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/march-3-total-lunar-eclipse-will-be-the-last-until-2028/ https://www.dogonews.com/2026/2/12/march-3-total-lunar-eclipse-will-be-the-last-until-2028 Thu, 26 Feb 2026 15:15:50 PST kidzsearch Pets & Animals 0 0 0 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/march-3-total-lunar-eclipse-will-be-the-last-until-2028/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/new-light-activated-coating-can-kill-stubborn-germs/ https://www.snexplores.org/article/light-activated-graphene-kill-germs



Graphene is a wonder. This single layer of carbon atoms is stronger than steel and lighter than aluminum. It conducts electricity better than many other materials. And recent studies now show it can even kill germs. A new graphene-based material is being developed to harness that surprising superpower.



Lets learn about graphene



To turn on this germ killer, all you need is a little light. Exposing graphene to light starts a chemical reaction, says Giacomo Reina. That reaction produces molecules that can take down microbes such as bacteria, viruses or fungi.



A materials scientist, Reina works at EMPA, a research institute in St. Gallen, Switzerland. He was part of a team that unveiled the new material last year in EcoMat.



As a liquid, the substance could one day coat surfaces often rife with germs. Those might include doorknobs or handrails in hospitals. Right now, though, Reinas team wants to use it in the human mouth. Its a particularly germy place. Installing new dental implants can put someone at risk of infection. But coating the implant with this germ-fighting coating should greatly lower that risk.





Graphenes greatness



In the 22 years since graphene was discovered, scientists have probed and explored it in many ways. Theyve even developed different types of useful graphene. It can add strength to concrete and tennis rackets. It can also boost the performance of electronic devices.



Nowadays, Reina says, graphene is more a family of materials. His team used a type called graphene oxide. Its a layer of carbon atoms with oxygen-containing molecules attached. This formula mixes easily with water to form an acid.



To that liquid, the EMPA team added a dash of nitrogen. When scientists place some extra stuff in a material, they call it doping. So this new material is called nitrogen-doped graphene acid.



Making it requires high precision at a small scale. As such, graphene can be difficult to work with. Unplanned defects can make it unusable, Reina notes. The added nitrogen, he explains, helps keep it stable.



When I saw this [material], I fell in love, Reina says. I wanted to try to see if it [would] work as a germ-killer coating.



An acid made from graphene is plated onto the dish held up here by Reina. The black circles mark where bacteria cannot grow. EMPA



Graphene vs. germs



When light strikes it, the doped material responds in two ways. First, it warms enough to kill certain microbes. But that light also triggers a chemical reaction between the doped graphene and oxygen in the air. This now creates a class of microbe-fighting molecules called radicals.



Turning the doped material into a liquid that could be used to coat surfaces took more than a year of trial and error. The scientists had to answer many questions about how the light was interacting with it, Reina says. What happened with oxygen? What happened without oxygen? What kind of reaction are we generating? Does it work many times?



To find out, the scientists compared the radicals produced by the doped material under different conditions. They also mixed the acid with a liquid plastic that could be easily spread on a surface.



The resulting material, Reina says, improves on past anti-germ coatings. For instance, unlike others, this one uses no metals (which may need ultraviolet radiation to activate their germ-killing action).



It can become antimicrobial under just ambient light, says Sara Imani. She calls that a plus point for the new material. Imani is a mechanical engineer in Canada at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She, too, works on new antimicrobial coatings (although not this one).



The Porphyromonas gingivalis bacteria (illustrated above) occur naturally in the mouth and other places in the body. They play a role in gum disease and other oral infections. The new graphene-based material can kill those germs on contact.KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images



Taking down tough microbes



Reinas group combined its material with bacteria in lab experiments and found that it could kill germs when bathed in infrared light. Those wavelengths are present in sunlight and some room lighting. They also tested the doped acid on a chemical that mimics living tissue, such as skin. It triggered no harmful reactions.



Those tests suggest that the new material is safe for the human body, including the mouth. Thats critical for how Reina and his colleagues intend to use it.



Their team is now working with dentists and researchers to develop a splint. Its a type of tray filled with a liquid film that can fit over the teeth. Within a few minutes, the tray could coat teeth with the new graphene-based material. Then, light shined into the mouth would kick on its antimicrobial activity.



The researchers have been testing the material against common infectious agents in gum tissue. One day, after having a dental procedure, someone might wear the splint and expose it to light. Its something the patient can do at home, too, Reina says, to kill harmful germs in their mouth.



He sees the new coating as a potent new tool in the ongoing fight against microbial superbugs. Many harmful germs dont just spread easily. Some also have developed resistance to drugs, such as antibiotics. These infections are now very hard to knock out. In fact, resistant infections kill more than 1.25 million people each year, according to the World Health Organization.



Materials like graphene, which deliver germs a one-two punch, could offer new ways to quash such resistant germs.




.cheat-sheet-cta {
border: 1px solid #ffffff;
margin-top: 20px;
background-image: url("https://www.snexplores.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/12/cta-module@2x-2048x239-1.png");
padding: 10px;
clear: both;
}





Do you have a science question? We can help!



Submit your question here, and we might answer it an upcoming issue of Science News Explores





]]> Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:30:00 PST kidzsearch Pets & Animals 1 1 0 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/new-light-activated-coating-can-kill-stubborn-germs/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/yosemites-annual-firefall-season-has-started/ https://www.dogonews.com/2026/1/11/yosemites-annual-firefall-season-has-started Thu, 12 Feb 2026 07:56:21 PST kidzsearch Pets & Animals -2 -1 1 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/yosemites-annual-firefall-season-has-started/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/lets-learn-about-tyrannosaurus-rex/ https://www.snexplores.org/article/lets-learn-about-tyrannosaurus-rex



An iconic scene in the classic 1993 film Jurassic Park begins with water glasses shaking on a dashboard. The vibrations sending ripples through the water turn out to be the stomping steps of a huge Tyrannosaurus rex. After escaping its enclosure, the dinosaur lumbers out onto a road. There, it uses its jaws lined with knife-sized teeth to tear apart a car, trying to eat the terrified park visitors huddled inside.



This scene gets some things about T. rex right. But other aspects dont quite match what paleontologists know about this famous dinosaur.



Lets get the word Jurassic out of the way first. Despite the name of the park in the film, T. rex did not live in the Jurassic Period. (That was about 201 million to 145 million years ago.) T. rex lived about 68 million to 66 million years ago. That puts it firmly in the Cretaceous Period (145 million to 66 million years ago).



See all the entries from our Lets Learn About series



In its time, T. rex truly was a fearsome predator, stalking prey across what is now western North America. Fossils have shown that T. rex could grow up to 12 meters (40 feet) long and 3.6 meters (12 feet) high. (Some scientists suspect T. rex could have gotten even bigger.) It may have weighed as much as a large elephant.



Whats more, a T. rexs jaws really were jaw-dropping in size. They could be about 1.2 meters (4 feet) long and filled with roughly 15-centimeter-long (6-inch-long) teeth. Its bite packed a force of more than 6 metric tons, which was enough to crush bones and maybe even a car.



But Jurassic Parks depiction of the T. rex maw may not have been quite right. The movie monsters teeth were on full display, even when its mouth was closed. This is similar to the setup in modern crocodiles mouths. But recent evidence suggests that T. rex teeth like those of modern Komodo dragons were hidden behind lips.



Science also casts doubt on how fast T. rex ran in the movie. In another famous Jurassic Park scene, a sprinting T. rex keeps up with a speeding car. But calculations based on fossilized footprints show that T. rex could only run about 20 to 40 kilometers (12 to 25 miles) per hour. Recent experiments with birds the only dinos alive today suggest that those estimates may be off.



There are still many other open questions about possibly the most famous dinosaur of all. Yet scientists including curious teens continue to uncover new insights into the terrifying T. rex.





Want to know more? Weve got some stories to get you started:



Analyze This: How big was the biggest T. rex? Only around 80 fossil Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons have been found. They probably dont include the biggest T. rex that ever lived. (11/20/2024) Readability: 6.2



Just how brainy was a T. rex? A debate rages over how to count brain cells in dinosaurs. At issue: figuring out how these extinct animals likely behaved. (7/25/2024) Readability: 7.9



The secret to T. rexs incredible biting force is at last revealed The force of a T. rex bite was roughly 6 metric tons. A new study points to whats behind that mighty force. (6/1/2021) Readability: 7.3





Tyrannosaurus rex is far from the only dinosaur to star in the Jurassic Park movies. How do the films portrayals of T. rex and other dinos stack up to science? A paleontologist explains.



Explore more



Scientists Say: Dinosaur



Scientists Say: Jurassic



What is a dinosaur?



Explainer: The age of dinosaurs



Dinosaurs are still alive. Today, we call them birds



T. rex may have hidden its teeth behind lips



T. rex pulverized bones with an incredible amount of force



Newfound fossil is not a teen T. rex but a whole new species



This big dino had tiny arms before T. rex made them cool



New clues about dino speed come from birds strutting through mud



Cool Jobs: Bringing paleontology to the people



Activities



Word find



Test your knowledge and flex your creativity with T. rex- and other dino-related activities from the American Museum of Natural History. Build your own T. rex or T. rex roar, solve a fossil puzzle or print off an age of the dinosaurs card game.  




]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 01:30:00 PST kidzsearch Pets & Animals -2 -1 1 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/lets-learn-about-tyrannosaurus-rex/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/candies-cool-group/ https://net.kidzsearch.com/candies-cool-group/ Sun, 01 Feb 2026 16:27:28 PST kidzsearch Pets & Animals 0 0 0 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/candies-cool-group/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/mind-blowing-fact/ https://net.kidzsearch.com/%f0%9f%a4%af-mind-blowing-fact/ Fri, 02 Jan 2026 02:12:38 PST kidzsearch Pets & Animals -2 -1 1 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/mind-blowing-fact/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/katseye-group/ https://net.kidzsearch.com/katseye-group-%f0%9f%8e%a4%f0%9f%8e%b5%f0%9f%98%ba/ Tue, 25 Nov 2025 23:02:10 PST kidzsearch Pets & Animals -2 -1 1 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/katseye-group/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/10-brand-names-and-companies-that-are-actually-acronyms/ https://net.kidzsearch.com/10-brand-names-and-companies-that-are-actually-acronyms/ Fri, 14 Nov 2025 15:53:10 PST kidzsearch Pets & Animals 0 0 0 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/10-brand-names-and-companies-that-are-actually-acronyms/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/holiday-contest/ https://net.kidzsearch.com/holiday-contest/ Sun, 22 Jun 2025 20:24:10 PDT kidzsearch Pets & Animals -4 2 6 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/holiday-contest/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/the-rear-end-of-this-ancient-wasp-was-built-like-a-venus-flytrap/ https://www.snexplores.org/article/ancient-wasp-venus-flytrap-rear



One ancient type of wasp appears to have had an especially freaky way to trap prey 99 million years ago. It used a mouth-like structure on its backside, fossils now suggest.



When you look at the head, the thorax and the wings, [this wasp] looks quite normal, says Lars Vilhelmsen. But its abdomen is very different, the insect biologist points out.



Most stinging wasps, such as yellow jackets, have rounded abdomens that end in a point. The ancient wasps totally unique abdomen instead has flaps that lay on top of each other. He likens it to a plant the Venus flytrap.



Vilhelmsens team shared its findings March 27 in BMC Biology.



It’s significant and amazing, he says, that we can find something that looks like nothing that we see today. Vilhelmsen works at the Natural History Museum of Denmark. Its part of the University of Copenhagen.



Amber-jacketed surprise



Along with researchers at Capital Normal University in Beijing, China, Vilhelmsen examined 16 wasp fossils. All had been unearthed from a valley in northern Myanmar (a Southeast Asian country also known as Burma).



At first, Vilhelmsen couldnt believe it. He thought an air bubble trapped in the amber might have caused the wasps abdomens to look so weird. But the amber in which they were encased had helped preserve their anatomy. And CT scans would confirm the abdomen truly was bizarre.



The ancient wasp is suspended in amber. This gives the fossil a yellowish tint and prevents it from decaying.Qiong Wu



Entomologist Anderson Lepeco, too, was shocked when he first saw pictures of these wasps. I’ve never seen something like that, he says. Lepeco, who was did not take part in the study, works at the University of So Paulo in Brazil.



For a second, Lepeco thought the first wasp that he saw was deformed. But when all had the same anatomy, he became convinced that this species was a really, really cool bug.



Named for a monster



The scientists named the wasp S. charybdis (Kur-IB-duss) after a sea monster in Greek mythology. Why? The wasps abdomen reminded them of the mouth full of teeth depicted in some drawings of Charybdis.



The wasps abdomen is split into three flaps an upper, middle and lower one. In a few fossils, the lower flap gaped far from the other two. In other specimens, the lower flap pressed tightly against the middle and upper ones. Because of this difference in position, the team thinks the flaps could grasp things.



The lower flap also had several thin hairs poking out of it. These hairs would likely trigger the flaps to shut when a critter brushed against them, the team suspects. Thats much like how the hairs on Venus-flytrap leaves trigger these leaves to snap shut, locking in a meal.



When an insect, such as this shield bug, touches the trigger hairs of a Venus flytrap, the plant snaps its leaves shut.Videologia/Creatas Video/Getty Images



Predators usually trap prey. When a praying mantis catches its dinner, for instance, the prey is so close to its mouth it can dine quickly. But this wasps weird abdomen is far from its mouth. It is much closer to the insects egg-laying organ.



For that reason, the scientists suspect these wasps might have wielded their back-end traps to restrain other creatures so that they could lay eggs on or inside of them.



I think it’s the most likely explanation, agrees Lepeco. Parasitoids are insects that lay their eggs on or in other animals, he notes and all the insects in [this wasps] group are parasitoids. When a parasitoids babies hatch, theyll feed on the animals that are carrying them.



Lepeco studies a group of insects that use stingers to inject a paralyzing venom into their prey. Afterward, they lay their eggs on this victim. Lepeco suggests the newly discovered ancient wasps might have laid their eggs on other creatures to feed their hatchlings.



Scott Shaw is an entomologist at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. He agrees with Lepeco that the most likely reason for the weird abdomen was to restrain insects. He, too, believes the wasps likely laid their eggs on their hosts, rather than inside of them. But, he adds, clearly no one has observed the behavior in the now long-extinct wasp. So scientists cant be certain of this.



Still, the mere existence of this feature is remarkable, says Lepeco. Like dinosaurs and saber-toothed tigers, insects of the past were very special, he says. We forget that at the same time those species were alive, there were also insects and the insects were also cool.




]]> Sun, 22 Jun 2025 17:30:00 PDT kidzsearch Pets & Animals -7 -1 6 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/the-rear-end-of-this-ancient-wasp-was-built-like-a-venus-flytrap/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/would-you-rather/ https://net.kidzsearch.com/would-you-rather-4/ Tue, 17 Jun 2025 02:33:17 PDT kidzsearch Pets & Animals -9 -3 6 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/would-you-rather/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/the-summer-solstice--welcoming-the-longest-day-of-the-year/ https://www.dogonews.com/2025/6/13/the-summer-solstice-welcoming-the-longest-day-of-the-year Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:39:45 PDT kidzsearch Pets & Animals -8 -2 6 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/the-summer-solstice--welcoming-the-longest-day-of-the-year/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/mythology-group%2B-percy-jackson-fans/ https://net.kidzsearch.com/mythology-group-percy-jackson-fans/ Thu, 12 Jun 2025 16:19:50 PDT kidzsearch Pets & Animals -3 2 5 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/mythology-group%2B-percy-jackson-fans/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/scientists-say--chiral/ https://www.snexplores.org/article/scientists-say-chiral-definition-pronunciation







Chiral (adjective, KY-rul)



A chiral molecule is one that comes in a left- and right-handed form. If a molecule is chiral, it cannot be placed over its mirror image in a way that matches perfectly.



To understand this, we need only look at our own hands. Hands are chiral. They come in a left- and right-handed form. These forms are mirror images of each other. (Place your palms together, and your fingers will align thumbs touching thumbs, for example.) But when the left and right hand are facing the same direction, one cannot be placed over the other in a way that matches perfectly.



You can try this yourself, or with a friend. Turn both hands palm up. Try to move your upward-facing right hand behind the upward-facing left hand. There is no way to align your upward-facing hands so that your thumbs are on top of each other. This is chirality.



Water molecules, like the one illustrated here, are achiral. That means a water molecule perfectly matches its own mirror image.ALI DAMOUH/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images



Some molecules, such as water (H2O), do perfectly fit their mirror images. These molecules are called achiral. Imagine a water molecule facing its reflection in a mirror. If you moved the water molecule over its reflection, the two could overlay perfectly. In other words, a water molecule could superimpose its mirror image.



Chirality is important in chemistry because it affects how molecules interact. Consider drug chemistry. Left- and right-handed forms of a drug molecule may affect the body in very different ways. So a chemist must know which form they are creating.



Chirality is also important in biology. Heres an example. Living things make amino acids, which combine to form larger protein molecules. Amino acids come in a left- and right-handed form. Yet almost all living things on Earth make and use only the left-hand form. The reason why remains a scientific mystery.



However, scientists recently studied amino acids that formed in space. In an asteroid, they found equal amounts of left- and right-handed forms. These amino acids were probably not formed by living things. Thats why there was no selection for the left-handed form.



In a sentence



Scientists developed chiral sound-dampening fabrics by twisting the connecting links in long molecules.



Check out the full list of Scientists Say.






]]> Sun, 08 Jun 2025 20:30:00 PDT kidzsearch Pets & Animals -3 1 4 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/scientists-say--chiral/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/a-giant--busted-planet-fuels-a-nebulas-mysterious-glow/ https://www.snexplores.org/article/planet-xrays-fuel-nebula-glow



A never-ending, X-ray explosion coming from a dead star has posed a mystery until now. This steady radiation appears to come from scorching-hot wreckage left behind by the annihilation of a giant planet.



The discovery stems from four decades of X-ray observations of the Helix Nebula. It lies some 650 light-years from Earth. The stream of X-rays has remained constant for at least 20 years. Now, scientists suggest a convincing explanation for why. The ruins of a Jupiter-sized world are streaming toward the nebulas white dwarf, the remains of a dying star. The collision makes the frazzled star glow in X-rays.



Researchers shared their findings in the January Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.



We dont know very much about how planetary systems behave after their star transitions from a red giant to a super long-lived white dwarf, says Paul Byrne. Hes a planetary scientist who did not take part in the research. He works at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. The new work offers a potential glimpse of the far, far-off future of the solar system, he says.





The Helix mystery



The Helix Nebula is like a colorful explosion frozen in time. Its halo of gas was cast off by a star that was losing its nuclear fuel. At its center lies a white dwarf  the leftover heart of that once-mighty star.



The white dwarf is not quiet, either. It appears to be “screaming” in X-rays. This emission was picked up by two space-based observatories. NASAs Einstein Observatory spotted it in the early 1980s. Then in the 1990s, the internationally operated ROSAT saw it.



It is very unusual to find single white dwarfs with an X-ray emission, says Sandino Estrada-Dorado. Hes an astrophysicist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City.



To try and crack the case, Estrada-Dorado and his team studied more recent observations of the nebula. Some were taken by NASAs Chandra X-Ray Observatory in 1999. Others came from the European Space Agencys XMM-Newton mission in 2002.



X-ray marks the fuel source



The team found that the X-ray emissions arent a fluke but rather a constant. To burst so brilliantly for so long requires a hefty fuel source. One possibility is that matter from a big, blasted planet has been raining down onto the white dwarf. This debris is heated so fiercely that it shines brightly in X-rays.



Calculations show the X-ray emissions are very intense. That means a Jupiter-sized world is the most likely culprit.



Explainer: Stars and their families



Long ago, such a planet might have drifted too close to the white dwarf. The flyby would have shredded the planet. The disk of debris left behind could then power the X-ray blaze.



X-rays could offer researchers a new way to explore the final chapters of planets. It could even help scientists study the core of those destroyed worlds.



We have precious little data about the deep interiors of giant planets, Byrne says. Its possible that through observations here and from other white dwarfs we can better distinguish the signals of the star from the infalling planet, he says. Then we might be able to tease out information about the planets composition, too.








]]> Thu, 05 Jun 2025 20:30:00 PDT kidzsearch Pets & Animals -8 -2 6 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/a-giant--busted-planet-fuels-a-nebulas-mysterious-glow/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/british-2-year-old-boy-becomes-the-clubs-youngest-ever-member-of-the-mensa-high-iq-club/ https://net.kidzsearch.com/british-2-year-old-boy-becomes-the-clubs-youngest-ever-member-of-the-mensa-high-iq-club/ Wed, 04 Jun 2025 09:54:36 PDT kidzsearch Pets & Animals -10 -3 7 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/british-2-year-old-boy-becomes-the-clubs-youngest-ever-member-of-the-mensa-high-iq-club/ https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/eco-friendly-sunscreen-thats-bananas/ https://www.snexplores.org/article/eco-friendly-sunscreen-bananas



Columbus, Ohio Bananas grow best in full sun. To protect their sensitive skins from damaging ultraviolet rays, banana peels produce a natural sunscreen. A teen has now peeled back the secrets of this natural sunblock. What shes found could lead to more eco-friendly sunscreens for all of us.



Taylor Maguire investigated how banana peels might lead to more eco-friendly sunscreens.T. Maguire



“My mom always raised me to pay attention to the ingredients in my cosmetics,” says Taylor Maguire, 15. She prefers “organic products over synthetic ones.” That led this sophomore at Garden City High School in New York to ask: “What’s in my sunscreen?



These products protect our skin against blistering solar rays. But their use comes at a price. Some of sunscreen’s chemicals may cause cancer, Taylor notes. And when these chemicals wash into our environment, they can hurt animals. For example, some mineral sunscreens interfere with the ability of freshwater animals to navigate. High enough exposures, she says, can kill some organisms.



So, Taylor looked for alternatives to mineral-based sunscreens. 



Bananas can naturally filter out much of the sun’s more damaging rays. Could their natural sunblock replace mineral sunscreens? Taylor investigated. And what she found out won her a spot here in May at the 2025 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, or ISEF.



Extracting the goods



Bananas tend to grow in a “UV-intense environment,” Taylor says. UV short for ultraviolet is a band of light wavelengths. This high-energy light is invisible to the human eye. But it causes most of the sun’s damage to our skin. For a sunscreen to work, it must protect against certain UV rays.



Taylor had reasoned that bananas “must have their own mechanism.” After all, they grow near the equator. That’s where UV exposures are strongest.



Plants typically make flavonoids pigments that come in a rainbow of colors as a defense against the suns UV. Taylor wondered if banana flavonoids might work to protect our skin from UV, too.



She wasn’t sure exactly which bananas flavonoids to use. Taylor heated, froze and blended the outer layer of a banana peel. “That’s the part that’s exposed to the sunlight,” she explains. Any UV-filtering chemicals likely lie there.



Breaking open the cells released many of their chemicals. From this soup she made two extracts. One of these contained only components that would dissolve in water. That was her aqueous extract. The other contained only chemicals that wouldnt dissolve in water. That was her nonpolar extract. Nonpolar chemicals dissolve in oil rather than water.





Putting banana extracts to the test



A sunscreen must absorb UV light before it reaches your skin. And the more it absorbs, the better. To test how well each extract could do that, Taylor turned to a light-measuring tool. Called a spectrophotometer, it measures how much of any color of light a liquid absorbs.



The tool confirmed that both of her banana extracts absorbed UV light. But the nonpolar one went a step further. It absorbed the full range of UV wavelengths and especially the most damaging ones. They belong to a part of the UV spectrum called UV-A.



Would banana-based sunscreens also be safe for the environment? After all, Taylor says, typical drug-store sunscreens can harm aquatic life. To find out, she recruited planarians (Girardia tigrina) as her guinea pigs. Planarians are a type of flatworm that live in water. They’re often used in drug-safety studies, Taylor explains. A chemical that harms these worms might also pose a risk to other aquatic animals.



Taylor created two banana-extract solutions one nonpolar and one aqueous. She also created mineral-sunscreen solutions for comparison. Spectrophotometry allowed her to test wavelengths of light absorbed by each sample. She also used a microscope to observe planarians’ locomotion or movement when exposed to UV light.T. Maguire



The plan was to put planarians into dishes with different extracts and expose them to strong UV light for 10 minutes. If the worms movement slowed or stopped, she took that to mean the light damaged them. Her five test solutions included her two extracts, a drugstore sunscreen solution, plain water and glycerol.



Why glycerol? The nonpolar extract and sunscreen solution both contained this thick liquid. Taylor tested glycerol by itself to check if it caused problems on its own.



And it did. The nonpolar banana, the glycerol and the mineral sunscreen [appeared] fatal to the worms, she found. They stopped moving.



That was surprising, Taylor says. Glycerol is actually an ingredient found in a lot of sunscreens, she says. Its not known to hurt people. But shes pretty sure it killed her planarians.



Taylor used these peels to create her banana extracts.T. Maguire



In a later test, Taylor would notice that glycerol damaged planarians’ skin even with no UV exposure. Glycerol is used in many products. Taylors work now suggests it might pose risks to aquatic life.



But planarians survived just fine in the aqueous extract. And these outperformed the water-only group the only other ones left alive, the teen says.



Taylor confirmed this later when she stained those same planarians. She used a special dye. It stains damaged tissue so that it glows under her microscopes UV light. Basically, the more glow, the more damage there is.



The three glycerol-exposed groups exhibited the most damage. The aqueous extract group showed the least. Where damage did show up, Taylor says, it looked spotty. That probably means a worm “was not fully coated.”



The next step is figuring out exactly what chemical provided the aqueous extracts UV protection. Identifying that, she says, could allow for a new class of eco-friendly, banana-based sunscreens.



Regeneron ISEF is a program created and run by the Society of Science (which also publishes this magazine). Taylor was among 1,657 students from 62 nations or territories competing at the 75th annual ISEF. They shared in nearly $9 million in prizes.




]]> Tue, 03 Jun 2025 20:30:00 PDT kidzsearch Pets & Animals -10 -3 7 https://kidzsearch.com/news/petsanimals/eco-friendly-sunscreen-thats-bananas/