How quantum biology might explain life’s biggest questions

How does a robin know to fly south? The answer might be weirder than you think: Quantum physics may be involved. Jim Al-Khalili rounds up the extremely new, extremely strange world of quantum biology, where something Einstein once called “spooky action at a distance” helps birds navigate, and quantum effects might explain the origin of life itself.
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Living Small: The Psychology of Tiny Houses

For a very small, but growing number of people, diminutive dwellings are making dreams come true.
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Scientists Find World’s Oldest Sea Scorpion

This huge animal likely fed on the soft-bodies of other invertebrates.
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6 Ways Climate Change in Alaska Will Affect You

Ten scientists were given just five minutes each to get across the essence of what often involved years or even decades of research and why it matters to Americans.
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A Gleeful Foreboding

It’s strange how much modern people secretly crave weather-related disasters—the blizzard that shuts down a city, bringing travel and commerce to a halt, the tropical storm that knocks out power, leaving millions in the dark. People of earlier centuries rightly feared such events and earnestly prayed to be delivered from them. Now there's an excitement that begins building the moment we hear of such a storm. By Clark Strand.
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How Ants Take Care of Their Farms

Hundreds of ant species have been farming for tens of millions of years.
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After the Flood: A Literary Chronology of Hurricane Katrina

How much time must pass before tragedy can be transformed into art? Conventional wisdom has it that at least a decade must elapse before we have the proper distance and perspective to understand the enduring story of a national or global catastrophe. But Hurricane Katrina, which began ten years ago this week, has proved different.
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Three Category 4 Hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean: How Rare Is That?

The Pacific Ocean saw a very rare occurrence on Saturday evening.
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Cutie & The Beast: Girl And Doberman Do Everything Together From Sleeping To Bathing

This cutie and her beast are the adorable three-year-old Siena and “Buddha,” her two-year-old Doberman. The unusual couple have been gaining popularity on social media through the photos of their antics, and because many consider a Doberman to be an unusual companion for a little girl.
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Climate Change Doc 'This Changes Everything' Gets a Stylish Poster From Shepard Fairey

The legendary street artist is also an executive producer on the film
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​Hurricane Fred Forms in the Atlantic; Hurricanes Ignacio, Jimena in Pacific Should Miss Hawaii

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says Fred's maximum sustained winds Monday morning are near 80 mph. Gradual weakening is forecast to begin Tuesday.
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“Grey swan” cyclones predicted to be more frequent and intense

Study finds some coastal regions may face a risk of unprecedented storm surge in the next century.
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Barred Owl With Crayfish

Barred Owl (Strix varia) with crayfish, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Naples, Florida. Photo by Matthew Paulson (linked in sources).
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New Map Plots North America’s Bounty of Rivers

More of North America’s land is covered by rivers than we thought, according to a new map. Scientists came up with a way to use satellite images to estimate the width of rivers and found that previous methods tended to underestimate how wide they are. The discovery could have implications for studies of flood risk as well as climate change impacts.
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How Smart Are Dolphins?

Dolphins are one of the smartest animal species on Earth. In fact, their encephalization quotient (their brain size compared to the average for their body size) is second only to humans. But exactly how smart are they? Lori Marino details some incredible facts about dolphins.
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New seabed discovery rivals Great Barrier Reef

An expedition to the sea floor off Australia's southern coast has revealed an underwater Eden, scientists say.
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Tiny ant takes on pesticide industry

Studies show insects as effective or better than chemicals in controlling some crop pests
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What's Better for Afghanistan's Future: Buddha Tours or a Copper Mine?

A vast archaeological site sits atop one of the world's biggest untapped copper deposits. And Afghanistan must decide which resource will be a greater boon.
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The Solar Sunflower: Harnessing the power of 5,000 suns

High on a hill was a lonely sunflower. Not a normal sunflower, mind you; that would hardly be very notable. This sunflower is a solar sunflower that combines both photovoltaic solar power and concentrated solar thermal power in one neat, aesthetic package that has a massive total efficiency of around 80 percent. The Solar Sunflower, a Swiss invention developed by Airlight Energy, Dsolar (a subsidiary of Airlight), and IBM Research in Zurich, uses something called HCPVT...
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Denali or McKinley? How a 19th century political ‘joke’ turned into a 119-year-long debate

There was no reason why a gold prospector of little consequence should have been able to christen America's tallest peak. But the name "Mount McKinley" stuck
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Mysterious video of ants circling phone

Strange footage of ants snapping into formation when an iPhone gets a call has the internet spellbound.
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A Village on the Verge of Being Swept Away

Two decades ago, the people of this tiny village came to terms with what had become increasingly obvious: They could no longer fight back the rising waters. Their homes perched on a low-lying, treeless tuft of land between two rivers on Alaska’s west coast, residents saw the water creeping closer every year, gobbling up fields where they used to pick berries and hunt moose.
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Nature Therapy: Forestry with Natural Sounds

"Lil Bodhi is is a nature therapy video project to bring the serenity of the natural world into the home or healing environment to provide a more tranquil experience. We strive to use fewer camera cuts and movements to support a soothed and relaxed experience, all while engaging focus through vibrant colors"
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OpenPuppies, Explore 100s of cute dog gifs!

Press the spacebar to load a new gif. You can also download the gif and upload your own. Say goodbye to the next hour because you'll be too busy "awwing".
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Study: Polar bears could feel sting of climate change by 2025

About a third of the world's polar bears could be in imminent danger from greenhouse gas emissions in as soon as a decade, a U.S. government report shows.
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13 'How did you get that?' wildlife photos from Tin Man Lee

Tin Man Lee has only been taking photos in a serious way for about 3 years — but you'd never know it by looking at his portfolio.
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China passes new pollution law, sets sights on coal consumption cap

The ruling Communist Party has acknowledged the damage that decades of untrammeled economic growth have done to China's skies, rivers and soil. It is now trying to equip its environmental inspection offices with greater powers and more resources to tackle persistent polluters and the local governments that protect them.
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How Fishermen's Bragging Rights Gave Birth To Fine Art

In 19th-century Japan, fishermen found a foolproof way to record trophy catches. The method was known as gyotaku, or "fish rubbing," and allowed fishermen to print inked fish onto paper — creating a permanent record of their size. They used a nontoxic sumi-e ink, a black ink traditionally used in both writing and painting which could be easily washed off. Once the print was made, the fish was either released, if it was still alive, or sold at market.
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Welcome to Beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia

Home to one of the most brazen, deadly corporate gambits in U.S. history. By Mariah Blake.
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Surprising Truth About Where US Immigrants Are Coming From

More than one in 10 people living in the United States right now was born in another country. Of the 41 million immigrants in the U.S., most come from Mexico, our neighbor to the south. However, when you take out Mexico out of the equation, a more diverse picture emerges.
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Brutal B.C.,Canada Windstorm Leaves Thousands Still Without Power

Hydro crews continue working to reconnect tens of thousands of customers who lost power as a windstorm swept across southwestern British Columbia.
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Nothing but water: Hydrogen fuel cell unit to provide renewable power to Honolulu port

As the most oil-dependent state in the nation and one that could be most affected by rising sea levels, Hawaii has become an early adopter of emerging technologies and innovative energy solutions.
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Windstorm causes power outages, injury in Metro Vancouver

One woman suffered life-threatening injuries after she was hit by tree during a severe rain and wind storm that whipped through B.C.’s South Coast on Saturday.
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Saw some amazing northern lighs two nights ago.

Equipment used: Pentax K-30 body, Pentax-DA 35mm Macro Limited lens. Sunset picture taken with a Pentax-DA 18-55mm lens. Photos taken at Merijärvi and Kalajoki, Finland.
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Five ways of looking at a butterfly

Five books focus on the insect.
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The Moon is about to do something very weird — and people think it's a sign of the apocalypse

The full Moon in September will be both the darkest and brightest of the year — and some have said that the Blood Moon could be a sign of the apocalypse.
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BMW: All Models Electric Within Decade

German luxury car giant Bayerische Motoren Werke AG or BMW Group (BAMXY, BAMXF, BMW.L) is looking to go all-electric over the next 10 years due to the upcoming stricter carbon emission laws. Virtually every BMW model would be converted to electric drivetrains, including range-extending engines and plug-in hybrids.
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How companies make millions off lead-poisoned, poor blacks

Structured-settlement annuitants are lured by quick cash to unload their future payouts for dimes on the dollar.
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Where is the world's hottest city?

Kuwait City, Karachi and the Iranian city of Ahvaz all experience some of the highest temperatures in the world. Such extreme heat, combined with poor air quality and planning, can have grave effects, especially for their poorest residents
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Surprising benefits of sexually transmitted infections

Some microbes passed on during sex could actually be good for us, are most of us missing out?
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What Is Killing America’s Bees and What Does It Mean for Us?

Pollinators are vanishing, and a silent spring could become a horrifying reality. So why won’t the EPA do more? By Alex Morris.
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Police Rescue Humboldt Penguin Roaming Peru Streets

Humboldt penguin found roaming the streets of a Peruvian town is rescued by local police.
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10 Years After Hurricane Katrina: Have Weather Forecasts Improved?

Though meteorologists knew Hurricane Katrina would slam New Orleans with levee-toppling intensity, today's weather forecasters are even better equipped to give notice of a storm's coming havoc.
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Melting Ice Causes Thousands Of Walrus To Wash Up On Alaskan Shore

Several thousand walruses have fled to the Alaskan shore due to melting ice in the Pacific.
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This Rare, White Bear May Be the Key to Saving a Canadian Rainforest

The white Kermode bear of British Columbia is galvanizing First Nations people fighting to protect their homeland. By Alex Shoumatoff.
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Worsening Wildfire Seasons Tax The Forest Service

The agency says it's now spending record amounts on fire suppression, and these bills are coming at the expense of its other programs — many of which would help prevent future wildfires.
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22 PSL-Inspired Recipes Even Better Than the Real Thing

It's officially fall, people. Almost ;)
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Why NASA’s so worried that Greenland’s melting could speed up

NASA is flexing its muscles to study Greenland in particular, and that entails two major types of research: studying the melting that is occurring on top of the ice sheet, and studying the melting of its outlying, oceanfront glaciers, which often calve off gigaton-sized icebergs into the sea, with enough force to generate powerful earthquakes.
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Lawsuit Accuses Nestlé of Using Slave-Caught Fish in Fancy Feast

The four consumers who filed the Nestle case in Los Angeles federal court seek to represent all California buyers of Fancy Feast who wouldn’t have bought the product had they known that the fish was allegedly harvested using forced labor.
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The Pope and the Planet by Bill McKibben

The pope’s encyclical on climate change is entirely different from what the media reports might lead one to believe. Instead of a narrow and focused contribution to the climate debate, it turns out to be nothing less than a sweeping, radical, and highly persuasive critique of how we inhabit this planet—an ecological critique, yes, but also a moral, social, economic, and spiritual commentary.
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