The Kid Should See This

An older Black woman with glasses and a gold headwrap smiles in front of a colorful wall painting featuring numerous stylized eyes.

💁🏻‍♀️ ICYMI: 🎨🧵 Artist, author, and activist Faith Ringgold didn't wait for permission to define herself – she painted, quilted, and wrote her own story for over 90 years. #history

👉 Learn more: zurl.co/H6rfj

Birdwatching may slow ageing of the brain, say neuroscientists | Discover Wildlife Learning to identify birds could be beneficial for cognition as people get older, according to a new study.

🧠🔭 Birdwatching is more than a hobby – it might actually change the physical structure of your brain. A study using brain scans found that expert birders have denser, more complex neural pathways in areas used for memory and attention. #health #birds

👉 www.discoverwildlife.com/ani...

Strong opinions matter: Why some birds refuse to follow the flock Researchers observed male zebra finches to see if they would follow the flock when building a nest, or stick to their own preferences. It may help us think about conformity in our own species, too.

🐦🏠 We often think of flocking #birds as a group that follows the leader, but new research shows that individual zebra finches can be quite stubborn. #science

👉 theconversation.com/strong-o...

A phalarope shorebird stands in shallow blue water with its beak open near the surface while another phalarope swims in the background.

🐦🌀 Watching a phalarope forage is like watching a tiny tornado in the water.

These shorebirds use their feet to spin in circles, creating a vortex that brings food within reach. #nature #birds

👉 Learn more: thekidshouldseethis.com/post...

The strange animals that control their body heat Some creatures can dramatically alter their internal temperature and outlast storms, floods and...

🌡️🐦 We usually group animals into "warm-blooded" or "cold-blooded," but many creatures actually switch between both. #animals #science

👉 arstechnica.com/science/2026...

An older Black woman with glasses and a gold headwrap smiles in front of a colorful wall painting featuring numerous stylized eyes.

🎨🧵 Artist, author, and activist Faith Ringgold didn't wait for permission to define herself – she painted, quilted, and wrote her own story for over 90 years. #history

👉 Learn more: zurl.co/IPuQe

Hands hold open a small handmade booklet featuring a white paper pop-up mechanism with "V-FOLD" and "EXTEND" handwritten in ink alongside various technical diagrams and notes.

💁🏻‍♀️ ICYMI: 📄🛠️ Paper #engineering is a rare craft with a history that stretches back hundreds of years. Inspired by world-leading experts, artist Eni Oken created this sampler booklet to document the pop-up mechanisms she learned. #art

👉 Learn more: thekidshouldseethis.com/post...

An illustration features three women from the 13 Colonies era—one of European descent, one Indigenous woman, and one woman of African descent—standing in front of backgrounds representing their different daily lives and communities.

💁🏻‍♀️ ICYMI: 📜🪶 This animated short from Colonial Williamsburg looks at the diverse lives of Indigenous, European, and enslaved African #women across the 13 colonies.

It explains how #geography, religion, and law determined what a woman could own or do.

👉 Learn more: thekidshouldseethis.com/post...

Hands hold open a small handmade booklet featuring a white paper pop-up mechanism with "V-FOLD" and "EXTEND" handwritten in ink alongside various technical diagrams and notes.

📄🛠️ Paper #engineering is a rare craft with a history that stretches back hundreds of years. Inspired by world-leading experts, artist Eni Oken created this sampler booklet to document the pop-up mechanisms she learned. #art

👉 Learn more: thekidshouldseethis.com/post...

Baby butterflies fool ants into taking care of them These caterpillars rely on ants to tend them, and they use a surprisingly complex sense of rhythm to make it happen

🦋🐜 Researchers found that Alcon blue #caterpillars can mimic the specific acoustic pulses of a queen ant.

By sounding like royalty, they convince worker #ants to carry them home and protect them from predators.

👉 www.scientificamerican.com/a...

A 3D-Printed Elephant Inside a Living Cell Signals a Bioengineering Breakthrough Learn more about the cutting-edge technology that enables 3D printing inside living cells and what that means for the bioengineering of tomorrow.

🐘🧫 Scientists have found a way to 3-D print microscopic structures directly inside living human cells without harming them.

These internal structures could lead to cells equipped with their own microscopic sensors and machines. #biology #science

👉 www.discovermagazine.com/a-3...

An illustration features three women from the 13 Colonies era—one of European descent, one Indigenous woman, and one woman of African descent—standing in front of backgrounds representing their different daily lives and communities.

📜🪶 This animated short from Colonial Williamsburg looks at the diverse lives of Indigenous, European, and enslaved African #women across the 13 colonies.

It explains how #geography, religion, and law determined what a woman could own or do.

👉 Learn more: thekidshouldseethis.com/post...

Invisible to the Human Eye: Scientists Create the World’s Smallest QR Code A 1.98-square-micrometer QR code, etched into ceramic thin film and verified by Guinness, showcases a new approach to ultra-dense, long-term data storage.

🔬💾 This QR code is so tiny it can only be seen with an electron microscope. By etching data into ceramic thin films instead of using magnets or electricity, researchers are developing a way to store our digital history for thousands of years. #science #physics

👉 scitechdaily.com/invisible-t...

'There are so many bones everywhere': The whale graveyards that transform the deep sea A photographer captured this extraordinary site where whales' bodies lie in the shallows, with troubling repercussions for the deep oceans.

🐳🌊 When a whale sinks to the bottom of the #ocean, it doesn't just disappear. It becomes an "ephemeral oasis," supporting thousands of creatures – including mouthless "zombie worms" – and trapping carbon on the seafloor for centuries. #science

👉 www.bbc.co.uk/future/article...

A mother kangaroo sits on the grass and touches noses with her young joey standing in front of her.

💁🏻‍♀️ ICYMI: 🦘🌱 Seven-month-old Bree is just starting to test out her "zoomies" while older joey Zach prepares to leave the pouch for good. Watch these two Kangaroo Island #kangaroos grow and learn at the Melbourne Zoo. #wildlife

👉 Learn more: thekidshouldseethis.com/post...

An illustrated person with a face made of a green and blue landscape and dark hair is centered in front of the pink, hand-drawn letters "Y" and "U," which are filled with small nature icons like flowers, a frog, a snail, and a rainbow.

💁🏻‍♀️ ICYMI: 🎻✨ What does it mean to be made of stardust and mud, of fossils and fire? This animated #music video for "Little Old You" by The Okee Dokee Brothers weaves geology, astronomy, and the water cycle into something tender and human. #science

👉 Learn more: thekidshouldseethis.com/post...

An overhead photograph shows a collection of star-shaped cookies decorated with intricate white and blue royal icing patterns on a white surface.

❄️🍪 Royal icing has its own physics, and it's meditative to watch a professional turn a plain #cookie into an intricate snowflake illustration.

Watch how one cookie artist demonstrates complex pressure piping and wet-on-wet flooding techniques. #baking

👉 Learn more: thekidshouldseethis.com/post...

How Medieval Cathedrals Were Built Without Science, or Even Mathematics Science and engineering may be conflated to some degree in the public mind, but anyone who's spent much time in an academic department belonging to one or the other of those branches of endeavor knows how insistently distinctions can be drawn between them.

🔥🏗️ Medieval masons used simple geometry and ropes to build soaring stone vaults centuries before Newton's laws existed. Check out the "#engineering method" of trial and error that kept these massive structures standing. #history

👉 www.openculture.com/2026/02/...

A mother kangaroo sits on the grass and touches noses with her young joey standing in front of her.

🦘🌱 Seven-month-old Bree is just starting to test out her "zoomies" while older joey Zach prepares to leave the pouch for good. Watch these two Kangaroo Island #kangaroos grow and learn at the Melbourne Zoo. #wildlife

👉 Learn more: thekidshouldseethis.com/post...

Mosquitoes have been sucking our blood for 1.8 million years Humanity's most lethal animal began its rise when the first hominins arrived in Southeast Asia.

🦟🩸 It turns out our long, itchy history with mosquitoes goes back nearly two million years.

Recent research suggests that as early human ancestors migrated, certain mosquito species evolved a specific "taste" for us to survive dry seasons. #science #evolution

👉 www.popsci.com/environment/w...

An illustrated person with a face made of a green and blue landscape and dark hair is centered in front of the pink, hand-drawn letters "Y" and "U," which are filled with small nature icons like flowers, a frog, a snail, and a rainbow.

🎻✨ What does it mean to be made of stardust and mud, of fossils and fire? This animated #music video for "Little Old You" by The Okee Dokee Brothers weaves geology, astronomy, and the water cycle into something tender and human. #science

👉 Learn more: thekidshouldseethis.com/post...

🧬👁️ In an evolutionary plot twist, new research shows that humans and other vertebrates share an ancestor that actually lost its paired eyes before evolving them all over again. #evolution #science

👉 phys.org/news/2026-02-oneeye...

♟️⚡ What happens when you cross a professional #chess engine with a medical shock device?

One engineer spent months building a custom board that delivers a physical jolt for every tactical error or illegal move. #science

👉 www.popsci.com/technology/el...

New Research Reveals Why Some Brains Can’t Switch Off at Night Insomnia may be driven by delayed circadian rhythms that prevent the brain from powering down at night.

🧠💤 Ever feel like your brain is still solving problems while you're trying to sleep?

New research suggests chronic insomnia might be caused by a "misaligned" internal clock that stays in daytime mode long after the lights go out. #health #science

👉 scitechdaily.com/new-researc...

Having to pee makes you scientifically better at video games Plus what space smells like and other weird things we learned this week.

🧠🎮 DYK that having to pee might make you a more elite gamer?

Researchers found that the need to "hold it in" spills over into other parts of the brain, leading to more patient, less impulsive decisions suitable for tough boss battles. #health #science

👉 www.popsci.com/science/havin...

Physics discovery explains why sneakers squeak And helped researchers play a 'Star Wars' song on glass.

🏀👟 It turns out that the squeak of a #basketball shoe has more in common with earthquakes than we realized.

Scientists at Harvard used high-speed cameras to explain how "slip pulses" create that familiar sound. #science

👉 www.popsci.com/science/why-s...

How Long Could Earth Microbes Live on Mars? Searching for past or present life on Mars is the sole driving force behind every mission we send to the Red Planet, from orbiters to landers to rovers. However, there remains a concern in the scientific community of Earth-based microbes hitching a ride on Mars-bound spacecraft, also called forward contamination. The concern is potentially mistaking Earth microbes for Mars life or Earth microbes potentially influence samples of Mars life we might find. While NASA is dedicated to mitigating it as much as possible, could new methods help determine how long Earth-based microbes could survive on Mars, this alleviating concerns for forward contamination?

🚀🦠 When we send rovers to #Mars, we try our best not to bring Earth microbes along for the ride.

A new model explains that while Mars’ intense radiation sterilizes the outside of a #space craft in just one day, some germs could hide inside for up to 25 years.

👉 www.universetoday.com/articl...

A person holds up a large, golden-brown Yorkshire pudding, showing its hollow center, while three more puddings rest on a wire cooling rack in the background.

💁🏻‍♀️ ICYMI: 🍳🧪 The secret to a tall Yorkshire pudding is all about the physics of water turning into gas. #baking #science

👉 Learn more: thekidshouldseethis.com/post...

Scientists Create “Chocolate Honey” Packed With Antioxidants Researchers in Brazil have developed an unusual combination of native bee honey and cocoa bean shells that transforms an agricultural byproduct into a potentially valuable food and cosmetic ingredient.

🍫🍯 Researchers in Brazil have found a way to turn chocolate-making waste into a health-packed "chocolate honey" by using ultrasound and the honey from native stingless bees. #food #science

👉 scitechdaily.com/scientists-...

“After nearly an hour of brutal fighting, it’s all over.” An otter family must defend its pups from a caiman. What happens next is extraordinary | Discover Wildlife In footage captured for the BBC TV programme Giant Otters of the Amazon, a caiman refuses to back down from fighting with a family of otters

🦦🐊 They may look like oversized versions of their cute cousins, but giant #otters are among the toughest predators in the Amazon.

New BBC footage shows a family working together for nearly an hour to drive off a caiman that got too close to their pups. #wildlife

👉 www.discoverwildlife.com/tv/...