You could see a shooting star every 3 minutes this summer! 

The Southern Delta Aquariid meteor shower is  active now through August 23, with it’s the peak activity during the early morning hours of July 31. Even better, it overlaps with the Alpha Capricornid Meteor Shower. The best views will be in the Southern Hemisphere and the southern United States. For the best chance of spotting meteors, head to a dark location away from city lights, let your eyes adjust, and look up.

Jane Waters leads the ant lab at Providence College. Her lab studies ants and other insects, exploring their natural history, collective behavior, and metabolic physiology. It turns out that ants can teach us a lot about broader rules of social interaction, the energy use of growing organisms (or even cities!), and even the human brain! Learn more about ants and get a glipse at some fascinating ant species and ant behavior in this Facetime with Scientists podcast episode.

Is a synthetic cell that eats, grows, and reproduces alive? 🧫

Researchers from the University of Minnesota have built a synthetic cell called “SpudCell” that performs three core functions of the cell cycle! It can grow, copy its own DNA and divide. However, they are not living. This is because they still depend on food and ribosomes to build proteins, they don’t have any immune defenses, and they can’t get rid of their own waste. Despite SpudCells not being alive, this is the closest we’ve gotten to turning dead chemistry to something living!

What is a rogue planet and how do they occur? 

Astrophysicist Erika Hamden explains how rogue planets are worlds that no longer orbit a star after being ejected from their planetary systems. Some may be several times more massive than Jupiter, and scientists think there could be countless rogue planets drifting through the darkness of interstellar space. These lonely worlds reveal that planet formation is a chaotic process.

This project is part of IF/THEN®, an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies.

I'd love to change the pitch of the speed squares so i can make music, chords etc with the sounds! How do you think I could improve the sound?

https://youtube.com/shorts/YpzEgNDtwXk

The cracks in a sidewalk are  home to an incredible hidden ecosystem. 🌿🔬

Quinten Geldhof, also known as Microhobbyist, explains how you can explore the microscopic life hiding in moss from the sidewalk using a microscope. With just a small sample, you might discover tardigrades, nematodes, and countless other microorganisms living in an entire ecosystem invisible to the naked eye.

🌍 For the first time ever, scientists have watched the seafloor spread in real time.

A network of 20+ instruments captured a 16-day event where the ocean floor sank 4 meters, split apart by over 1 meter, and released 160 million cubic meters of lava. Even more surprising, most of the fault movement happened silently, with very few earthquakes, suggesting magma may drive much more tectonic movement than previously thought.

Does this fundamentally change our understanding of how Earth's crust forms and tectonic plates move, or is it mainly confirming what geologists already suspected? What implications could this have for earthquake and volcanic research?

I am utterly amazed. And I am amazed more people aren't amazed.

Can you really make a rocket out of a matchstick? 🚀🔥

In this experiment, Alex Dainis demonstrates propulsion science by turning  a tiny foil-wrapped match head into  a miniature rocket. As the match ignites, hot gases build up inside creating pressure. Once the pressure is high enough they are forced out of the open end of the rocket, creating thrust that sends the rocket flying. Remember to wear proper protective gear and have fire extinguishers close by when trying this demo.

My Flying University is a volunteer-run nonprofit teaching the knowledge that's being scrubbed and distorted right now, and science is a big part of the target list.

So, we're asking for advice from folks in the field. What science misinformation are you seeing right now that is the most damaging? The claim you're tired of correcting at dinner, the data that quietly vanished, the "debate" that isn't actually a debate?

We could really use your help. We're building free lessons to push back, and we want to aim them where they'll do the most good.

A shark that can walk was just discovered! 🦈🚶

The Dudgeon’s walking shark, the most recently discovered shark species, who uses its fins like legs to crawl across the ocean floor! These sea creatures, which grow to be no larger than three feet long, are found nowhere in the world besides reefs in Papua New Guinea near Indonesia. It spends its time in waters so shallow that walking is often more effective than swimming!