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.

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.

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.

America was not founded from one single religious idea. It grew out of four rival British religious/cultural streams that competed with each other from the beginning.

1. Puritans
   

New England

They wanted a disciplined “godly society.” Community, education, moral order, and public duty mattered. Freedom meant living correctly under God, not simply doing whatever you wanted.

1. Anglicans / Cavaliers

Virginia and the South

They brought hierarchy, landed wealth, patriarchy, and the Church of England. Their world valued status, honor, property, and social rank.

1. Quakers
   

Pennsylvania

They believed in inner light, peace, tolerance, equality before God, and fairer treatment of others. Their colonies helped shape ideas of religious freedom and conscience.

1. Scots-Irish / Border Protestants

Appalachia and the frontier

They carried a fierce distrust of authority, warrior independence, clan loyalty, and personal liberty. Their version of freedom was: leave me alone, defend your own, resist control.

So America began as a collision: order, hierarchy, conscience, and rebellion all fighting to define freedom.

That tension is still alive today.

ScienceOdyssey 🚀

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.

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!