
West Point Uniforms Signify Explosive Chemistry
U.S. Military Academy cadets wear the colors black, gray and gold for reasons found in gunpowder’s chemistry.

West Point Uniforms Signify Explosive Chemistry
U.S. Military Academy cadets wear the colors black, gray and gold for reasons found in gunpowder’s chemistry.

How to Make Elephant Toothpaste
Learn how to make “elephant toothpaste” with this bubbly science project from Science Buddies


Science News Briefs from All Over
A few brief reports about international science and technology from Guatemala to Australia, including one about the first recorded tornado in Nepal.

Put Edible Paper to the Test
A creative cooking activity from Science Buddies

Her Nobel Research Outshines Her Star Turn

Elite Runners’ Microbes Make Mice Mightier
Mice that were fed bacteria isolated from elite athletes logged more treadmill time than other mice that got bacteria found in yogurt.

Antiperspirant Boosts Armpit and Toe-Web Microbial Diversity
Rather than wiping microbes out, antiperspirants and foot powders increased the diversity of microbial flora in armpits and between toes. Christopher Intagliata reports.

You Contain Multitudes of Microplastics
People appear to consume between 74,000 and 121,000 microplastic particles annually, and that's probably a gross underestimate.

A Biodegradable Label Doesn’t Make It So
At the third Scientific American “Science on the Hill” event, “Solving the Plastic Waste Problem”, one of the issues discussed by experts on Capitol Hill was biodegradability.

Nobelist: Harness Evolution as a Problem-Solving Algorithm
Frances Arnold, the Caltech scientist who shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, says evolution can show us how to solve problems of sustainability.

Ancient Whiz Opens Archaeology Window
The residue of ancient urine can reveal the presence of early stationary herder-farmer communities.

Chemists Investigate Casanova’s Clap
In his memoirs, the womanizing writer Giacomo Casanova described suffering several bouts of gonorrhea—but researchers found no trace of the microbe on his handwritten journals. Karen Hopkin reports.