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LabX The National Academy of Sciences's Public Engagement Testbed The Koshland Science Museum closed on November 27, 2017. Find out more at labx.org

The work of the museum is now carried out through LabX, a public engagement program of the National Academy of Sciences.

A 50-million-year-old identity crisis, your gut's relationship with your brain, and a cosmic demolition derby. 🐊🧠🪐Just a...
10/09/2026

A 50-million-year-old identity crisis, your gut's relationship with your brain, and a cosmic demolition derby. 🐊🧠🪐

Just another perfectly normal week in science.

This week's Friday Findings takes us from ancient Egypt, where scientists identified a crocodile species hiding in plain sight for over a century, to new PNAS Nexus research exploring the gut-brain connection in mice, and finally into space, where astronomers are finding clues about violent planetary collisions.

Swipe through for three science stories that deserve a little more attention.

Which one surprised you the most? 👀

Want more weird and wonderful science delivered to your inbox every Friday? Sign up for Your Friday Findings through the link in our bio!

10/02/2026

Scientists used differential equations to redesign the urinal — all to solve one very annoying problem: splashback. 🚽💦

Their new shapes keep the stream hitting at a lower angle, which dramatically cuts down on splash.

This week’s Friday Finding is weird, practical, and exactly the kind of science we love.

Nothing is sitting as still as it looks.Tiny relatives of complex cells are crawling across surfaces. Plankton are tradi...
10/02/2026

Nothing is sitting as still as it looks.

Tiny relatives of complex cells are crawling across surfaces. Plankton are trading chemical warnings that may help predict toxic blooms. And satellites are revealing freshwater changes hidden inside a blurrier global picture.

Swipe through for three new findings about movement in places we usually can’t see—then tell us which one surprised you most.

10/01/2026

Need an International Coffee Day experiment you can drink? ☕🧪

We’re making a Vienna latte with espresso, milk, and a light, fluffy vanilla cream topping — and exploring some of the coffee chemistry happening along the way.

It’s part recipe, part science experiment, and a very good excuse to make another cup of coffee.

Watch and make it with us: https://ow.ly/pFJp50ZSo9T

Happy International Coffee Day! ☕🔬Before you pour another cup, have you ever wondered how much science goes into making ...
10/01/2026

Happy International Coffee Day! ☕🔬

Before you pour another cup, have you ever wondered how much science goes into making it taste the way it does?

Natasha, Matt, and Robin explore the chemistry of coffee in this episode of Chemists in the Kitchen — experimenting with grind size, filtration, aroma, and flavor to find out how different choices can change the coffee-drinking experience.

Turns out your nose may be doing more work than you think.

Grab a cup and watch the full episode: https://ow.ly/N92Y50ZSo4z

Life on Earth is connected in ways that don’t always make sense at first glance.Why are elephants closely related to man...
09/28/2026

Life on Earth is connected in ways that don’t always make sense at first glance.

Why are elephants closely related to manatees? Why do falcons look like hawks even though they aren’t close relatives? How can one butterfly species turn out to be many?

Explore those questions and more with NAS member Doug Soltis in LabX’s Tree of Life series.

Watch the full playlist on YouTube:
https://ow.ly/oFOo50ZSoNE

Sometimes the smallest details change the whole story: a crease in a surface, the age mix hidden inside a statistic, or ...
09/25/2026

Sometimes the smallest details change the whole story: a crease in a surface, the age mix hidden inside a statistic, or the speed at which a species must adapt.

This week’s Friday Findings brings together droplets with surprising navigation skills, a smoking statistic that needed a closer look, and albatrosses facing an evolutionary speed limit. Swipe through for three new findings from PNAS and PNAS Nexus, then tell us which one made you stop scrolling.

A cocktail that changes color right in front of you? Sounds like a job for some chemists. 🧪🍹In this episode of Chemists ...
09/24/2026

A cocktail that changes color right in front of you? Sounds like a job for some chemists. 🧪🍹

In this episode of Chemists in the Kitchen, our chemists experiment with color-changing cocktails and explore the chemistry responsible for what you see in the glass.

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://ow.ly/pNAv50ZR867

What does Pokérus have to do with how diseases spread?We teamed up with adef to investigate one of Pokémon’s strangest m...
09/23/2026

What does Pokérus have to do with how diseases spread?

We teamed up with adef to investigate one of Pokémon’s strangest mechanics — and follow the question from the game into the science of infectiousness.

Watch the full LabX × adef video:
https://ow.ly/ouyl50ZQL1r

Science got delightfully specific this week. 🔬A papal announcement gave collective enthusiasm a measurable half-life. Me...
09/18/2026

Science got delightfully specific this week. 🔬

A papal announcement gave collective enthusiasm a measurable half-life. Messenger RNA may have evolved ways to avoid becoming one giant molecular clump. And a pufferfish taste receptor is surprisingly relaxed about which way its amino acids are facing.

Swipe through for three new findings from PNAS and PNAS Nexus. Which one are you bringing up at dinner?

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