Kids News - Science Articles

Visitors that dare to venture deep into the Western Amazon rainforest often encounter a strange sight - groups of butterflies hovering above yellow-spotted river turtles that are basking in the sun. What's even stranger is why they are there - To drink the tears from their eyes! And it's not because the beautiful insects are trying to comfort the reptiles, but because the tears contain the one ingredient that is lacking in their diet - sodium....

Always wanted to experience what it would be like to live in a gravity-free world? Then you may want to check out the 'Mystery Spot' - a nondescript barn located in the redwood forests that lie on the outskirts of the picturesque city of in California. That's because short of flying, you will be able to experience almost everything astronauts do, without ever leaving earth....

The idea that the mighty crocodile which can shred its prey to pieces within minutes, would even glance at a vegetable let alone eat it, seems almost insulting. But don't tell that to the residents of the Nyanyana crocodile farm that lies on the shores of the world's largest artificial lake, Zimbabwe's Lake Kariba. They apparently are completely vegetarian....

A team of paleontologists in South America recently announced that they have found the remains of what may be the biggest dinosaur found yet. According to their estimates, the unnamed giant, a new species of the Titanosaur, weighed at least 77 tons, stood 65-feet high and measured 130-feet long, from head to tail. In contrast, the previous record holder, the Argentinosaurus, which stood a slightly taller 70-feet, is believed to have weighed just 70 tons and measured 115-feet in length....

Scientists have often pondered over how the eight-armed octopus avoids getting tangled around itself. This mystery was particularly perplexing given that each tentacle is lined with hundreds of suckers that are strong enough to stick to almost anything. Also, unlike animals with rigid skeletons, the mollusks have no idea where their arms are at any given moment....

One of the most popular ways to demonstrate this year's severe US winter appeared to be tossing out a glass of boiling water and watching it freeze instantly, in mid-air. Of course, the reason the fun experiment impressed viewers is because nobody expects boiling water to turn to ice that quickly. Turns out that contrary to intuitive thinking, it actually solidifies faster than cold water! Why? That's a mystery still waiting to be solved....

With fishing trawlers increasingly tossing nets deeper into the ocean, tales of innocent marine animals being entangled are becoming all too common. Late last month, that was exactly what happened to a humpback whale that was making its way through the waters of California's Monterey Bay....

A man named Rick finally got to experience what Mother's Day feels like this year, thanks to 13 little ducklings that think that he is their mother and follow him around all day. The unusual saga began when the mother of the young chicks disappeared soon after laying the eggs....

A team of scientists led by University of Texas, Austin, astronomer Ivan Ramirez have identified a star that they believe is one of many siblings our sun has floating around the Universe. Formed 4.5 billion years ago from the same large interstellar cloud that gave birth to our sun, it is 15% larger and lies 110 light-years away in the constellation Hercules. Though not visible with the unaided eye, HD 162826 that lies close to bright star Vega, can be easily viewed with low-power binoculars....