Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Tree branches in art throughout history follow geometric rules related to fractal geometry. 'Almond blossom' by Vincent van Gogh.

Kendra Pierre-Louis: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Kendra Pierre-Louis, in for Rachel Feltman. The Christmas tree feels like a tradition from time immemorial—and in some ways it is.

Research shows that a phenomenon called St. Elmo’s Fire, which occurs during thunderstorms, may be much more common than previously understood. By Annie Roth When lightning strikes in a thunderstorm, ...

For the first time, scientists have filmed high-speed video of a phenomenon where trees emit an electrical glow by generating sparks during thunderstorms. The results of a study published in ...

Do artists and scientists see the same thing in the shape of trees? As a scientist who studies branching patterns in living things, I’m starting to think so. Piet Mondrian was an early 20th-century ...