Curious Kids[1] is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.[2]. How was popcorn discovered? – Kendra, age 11, Penn Yan, New York You have to wonder how people originally figured out how to eat some foods that are beloved today. The
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The U.S. Capitol, shown against dark clouds.

Government funding for science is usually immune from political gridlock and polarization in Congress. But, federal funding for science is slated to drop for 2025.

Science research dollars are considered to be discretionary, which means the funding has to be approved by Congress every year. But it’s in a budget category with larger...

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two teenage girls smile as they stand cheek to cheek

The promised artificial intelligence revolution requires data. Lots and lots of data. OpenAI and Google have begun using YouTube videos to train their text-based AI models[1]. But what does the YouTube archive actually include?

Our team of digital media[2] researchers[3] at the University of Massachusetts Amherst collected and analyzed random...

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In 1974, on a survey in Hadar in the remote badlands of Ethiopia, U.S. paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson[1] and graduate student Tom Gray found a piece of an elbow joint jutting from the dirt in a gully[2]. It proved to be the first of 47 bones of a single individual – an early human ancestor whom Johanson nicknamed “Lucy.” Her...

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