Why Do Some Animals Engage in Same-Sex Sexual Behavior? The Better Question Is… Why Not?

The chemical composition of fresh fruit flavor is surprisingly complicated — By Sara Chodosh No one expects a banana Laffy Taffy to taste like an actual banana. But the reason has nothing to do with some old timey banana — it has to do with chemistry. Legend has it that the reason artificial banana flavor tastes so strange is that the…

Building houses to withstand the ever-growing fire problem may be only for the rich — By Eleanor Cummins Brandon Jørgensen grew up in the canyons of northern California. From a young age, he was familiar with disaster: Jørgensen knew the region’s cyclical wildfires firsthand, and was no stranger to its earthquakes either. …

Rain with no water. Air with no oxygen. Hills with no soil. — By Charlie Wood Before astronauts can hike through Titan’s gentle hills or slide down its colossal dunes, they’ll have to know where they’re going. Researchers have taken a major step toward the exploration of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, by producing the first global map of the world’s icy plains, twisted…

Seismologists need help from social scientists to know how people respond to earthquake alerts — By Ula Chrobak When back-to-back earthquakes shook Southern California in July, residents of Los Angeles were frustrated; Many felt the earthquakes, which originated over 100 miles away in Ridgecrest, but received no alert through their ShakeAlertLA phone apps. …