Page Type: Middle

Should cell phones be allowed in classrooms? The answer to that question has been debated for years. But a new study suggests that taking very short “phone breaks” could help increase students’ test scores.

The study took place over the course of a semester (about 15 weeks) at a U.S. university. Some of the participating students were given one-, two-, or four-minute breaks during their classes. They were allowed to use their phones during these breaks. The other students were the “control group.” They were also given breaks but weren’t allowed to use their phones. Instead, they could ask questions during this time.

The researchers found that the students who were allowed to take phone breaks were less likely to look at their phones when the class was going on. These students also did better on tests than the students in the control group.

Researchers also wanted to know if the length of the phone break mattered. They found that the one-minute phone break was more effective than the longer phone breaks.

Why are shorter breaks best? Researchers think one minute is just long enough to read and reply to a single text without getting into a long texting conversation.

But this doesn’t necessarily mean that teachers should let students take short phone breaks. Other studies have found that even short breaks make it harder for students to remember what they learned, resulting in lower grades.

The debate continues!

There’s good news for people who love to sprinkle their messages with emojis. Eight new emojis are coming to phones and computers worldwide. The designs, which include a purple splat and a tired face, are set to hit devices in 2025.

Emojipedia recently unveiled its new sample designs for the emojis, which were then approved by Unicode Consortium, the organization in charge of maintaining global emoji standards. They’re called sample designs because Apple, Google, and other tech companies will be allowed to create specific versions for their devices.

The emojis include a tired face with bags under its eyes, a human fingerprint, a purple paint splatter, a root vegetable, a dead tree, a small harp, a shovel, and the flag of Sark (an island in the English Channel).

As with all emojis, users will be able to interpret and apply them however they wish. But at least one of the new designs has a purpose. The dead tree is meant to raise awareness about drought, which is one effect of climate change.

“Drought is a natural part of [the] climate cycle, [and] for millions of years trees have adapted to these harsh conditions,” said Brian Baihaki, who submitted the design to Unicode for approval. “But the climate is changing, [and] drought [has] become more frequent, severe, and even spread to other places in [a] short amount of time.”

But the tired face may end up being the most popular of the new lineup, having won “Most Anticipated Emoji” at the World Emoji Awards in 2024 with more than 62 percent of the vote. The paint splatter came in second, followed by the shovel.

If the names Zelda and Super Mario Bros. mean anything to you, you’re probably a Nintendo fan. Now, the video game company that has entertained generations of gamers has opened the Nintendo Museum.

The museum opened on October 2 in Uji, Japan, in the building complex once occupied by the company’s factory. Visitors can learn about Nintendo’s long history, which began in 1889 when the company made playing cards, and see displays of nearly all the company’s products. In addition to massive hits like Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong, Nintendo shows off prototypes (models) of products that never made it to stores. Visitors also get to see what Nintendo’s famous games from decades ago would be like if they were made using modern technology.

If you’ve ever gotten into a car on a hot, sunny day, you know it’s not a pleasant experience. A sweltering car is not only uncomfortable but also potentially unsafe. Now, auto company Nissan Motor Co. has come up with new automotive paint that can keep a car’s exterior and interior dramatically cooler. 

Nissan tested the paint at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, which receives abundant sunlight, by parking two cars next to each other—one coated with the cooling paint and one coated with regular auto paint. At the end of the test, the vehicle with the cooling paint was up to 22 °F (12 °C) cooler on the outside and up to 9 °F (5 °C) cooler on the inside than the other vehicle.

All over the planet, kids and teens are finding creative ways to help other people and the environment. The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes highlights a few notable examples by honoring 25 young people in North America who are making the world a better place. The top 15 honorees each win $10,000, which they can put toward their service work or a college education.

Here are a few of this year’s inspiring winners.

Unlike some of its neighbors in the solar system, Earth has just one moon. But for a brief time, our planet is also being orbited by an asteroid that scientists are calling a mini-moon.

The asteroid, which is named 2024 PT5, entered Earth’s orbit in late September after being captured by our planet’s gravity. It’s expected to remain until November 25, for a total stay of about 56 days. At 33 feet (10 meters) long, 2024 PT5 is about the size of a school bus, and scientists say there’s no danger it will collide with Earth.

But will 2024 PT5 give the Moon a run for its money? Not really, scientists say. Most people won’t be able to see it in our sky. 

“The object is too small and dim for typical amateur telescopes and binoculars,” astronomer Carlos de la Fuente Marcos told Space.com. Marcos co-wrote a study about the asteroid. “However, the object is well within the brightness range of typical telescopes used by professional astronomers.” 

2024 PT5 won’t even be around long enough to complete a full orbit around Earth. Eventually, it will go back out into space and join an asteroid belt that’s orbiting the Sun.

Scientists say “mini-moon events” aren’t too unusual. In February 2020, scientists detected another asteroid that had begun to orbit Earth in 2017. It remained in orbit for more than a year after it was spotted. That was what scientists called a “long mini-moon episode.” Unlike long episodes, which occur only every 10 or 20 years, short episodes (like 2024 PT5’s visit) happen several times each decade.

Cats are natural-born hunters, but not all cats actually hunt. A new study shows that whether a cat hunts or not depends partly on its personality.

The ability to hunt is part of a cat’s instinct, meaning cats are born knowing how to hunt. Many cats will hunt even if they’re well fed by humans—so hunger isn’t always related to why a cat goes looking for prey. This made a team of scientists wonder why some cats don’t hunt.

In the study, which took place in France, scientists surveyed 2,508 people whose cats spend at least part of the time outside. The scientists found that only some of these cats brought prey home regularly. The difference between the cats that hunted and the cats that didn’t hunt had nothing to do with age or gender. Instead, it was related to the cats’ personalities. Cats that were more curious, adventurous, or dominant (bold and aggressive) were more likely to be hunters. Cats that were friendlier or shyer were less likely to be hunters.

The scientists also found that cats that spent more time outdoors were more likely to hunt. Also, cats living in rural or suburban areas were more likely to hunt than cats living in cities.

Cat owners know that different cats have different personalities. But scientists only recently considered the idea that a cat’s personality might be related to whether it hunted or not.

“[This study] is super interesting because we’re in an age where we’re spending a lot more time studying cats and cat personalities, and kind of finding all the nuances to the behavior,” cat behaviorist Wailani Sung told USA Today. Sung helped make the 2022 Netflix documentary Inside the Mind of a Cat.

Two high school students made headlines when they solved a math problem that’s stumped many mathematicians. Their feat even caught the attention of former NBA superstar Charles Barkley, who pledged a million dollars to the school the students attended.

In 2022, Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson were seniors at St. Mary’s Academy in New Orleans, Louisiana, when they entered a schoolwide math contest related to the Pythagorean theorem. The Pythagorean theorem says that the sum of the squared lengths of the two shorter sides of a right triangle is equal to the square of the length of the longer side. So if you know the lengths of two sides of a right triangle, you can use the theorem to figure out the length of the third side. Here’s how the equation is written:

Wolves once roamed around England, unknowingly spreading wildflower and grass seeds that stuck to their fur and paws and fell off miles away. This seed-spreading was important for England’s biodiversity. But since wolves are long gone from that part of the world, their canine cousins—dogs—are pitching in.  

In a town called Lewes, people are putting seed-filled backpacks on their dogs before heading to the Railway Land Nature Reserve. The backpacks are full of holes, so the dogs spread the seeds as they roam freely around the reserve with their humans close by. Project manager Dylan Walker says the dogs walk four times the distance humans do and often squeeze into places where humans don’t go. 

Wolves once unknowingly did this work, often roaming 12 miles (20 kilometers) every night. But wolves became extinct in Britain in the 1700s.

“I signed up [for the project] because it sounded like such a good fit,” dog owner Cressida Murray told the Guardian. “I was asked to place a harness on my chocolate cocker spaniel called Bertie, and he ran around spreading seeds like wolves used to do many years ago.”

Walker got the idea for the project after hearing about a similar project that took place in Chile in 2019. After fires destroyed many acres of forest and drove many animals out, two women tied seed-filled satchels to their three dogs and let them run around the area. Even though the dogs had no idea what they were doing, their work helped turn some charred land green again.

In England, the dogs’ work is paying off, Walker says.

“We’ve already started to see seed germination in some areas, but most of the seeds that have been distributed by the dogs are perennials, which take a couple of years to establish and flower, so hopefully next year we’ll see some clearer results,” he told the Guardian.