Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Cable bacteria are very different from most other bacteria. First of all, they are multicellular, and each cable bacterium has tens of thousands of cells connected in a chain called a filament that can be several centimeters long. What makes cable bacteria really special is the way they get the energy they need for living: the cells within a filame...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a rare disorder that affects older adults, causing them to slowly lose the ability to communicate. PPA is caused by certain diseases that damage brain cells in areas of the brain that control speech and language. There are three types of PPA, each with unique speech and language symptoms. While there is not curr...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Carbon dioxide (CO2) plays an important role on Earth. But right now, there is too much! Burning fossil fuels increases the CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, causing global warming. Friend or foe, reducing CO2 is crucial. One way to do this is to capture CO2 before it is released from factory chimneys, or to take it directly from the air. These st...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Some people say mathematics is the most important subject in science because it is the language of nature. In this article, we provide examples for this by explaining causality. Causality is an important concept because it influences essentially all areas of science and society. In simple terms, causality is the principle that examines the link bet...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Silicon is one of the most abundant chemical elements in the universe. On Earth, it forms sediments, minerals, and rocks. In the ocean, silicon is found in a dissolved form that can be used by many organisms to grow. You probably know that humans use calcium to build their skeletons, but did you know that there are creatures capable of forming skel...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Lysosomes are specialized cell structures that serve as the garbage collection system of the body‘s cells. The lysosome contains components that clean up various types of cellular “trash” and are responsible for activating the recycling process. When lysosomes do not work properly, trash accumulates in the cells, eventually leading to a sick cell a...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Like humans, bacteria live in communities where they can help each other and collaborate. However, when conditions become harsh, such as when there is a lack of food, bacteria turn aggressive—they kill each other to access limited resources. To do this, bacteria have developed some fascinating weapons, including a microscopic crossbow! This crossbo...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Humans have seven main senses, each of which has its own unique sensory organs. These organs relay different kinds of information about the outside world (sights, sounds, etc.) to the brain. The information the sensory organs relay is then combined together throughout the brain. This combining of information from multiple senses is known as multise...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Down syndrome is a health condition in which there is an extra copy of the genetic material found on chromosome number 21. This can cause unrelated people with Down syndrome to share certain features such as being shorter and having small ears. Kids with Down syndrome often need extra help with some things, and may learn better in special classroom...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Nitrogen is essential to all life on Earth. Tiny organisms, called microbes, help to make nitrogen available to all other living things. One group of microbes, called nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB), help to remove excess nitrogen from the environment that can be dangerous to plants and animals. However, there is still a lot to learn about the dis...
