Teeth marks evidence that early humans were eaten by animals

Teeth marks on a 500,000-year-old thighbone indicate a large carnivore — most likely a hyena — ate an ancient human.

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The High Missouri

The Missouri River earlier today, a few feet above flood stage.

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Flowers might have memories

Flowers might form their memories because of the protein that causes mad cow disease, according to a new study. Plants have long been observed to have something like memory, remembering information like when is the best time to flower and passing that information on to their offspring. They have even been known to become “forgetful” – wiping out memories of past traumas if they are causing problems.

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The Physics of Peacock Tail Feathers Is Even More Dazzling Than We Realized

Male peacocks shake their brilliantly-hued, long tail feathers to attract females in a courtship display known as “train-rattling.” But scientists had never closely examined the biomechanics behind this behavior—until now. A new paper in PLOS One concludes that the frequency at which those feathers vibrate can enhance this iridescent display—even as the eyespots remain almost perfectly still.

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Cracking the mushroom glow mystery

A Japanese researcher believes he has solved part of the puzzle of fungal bioluminescence

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Disease evolution: how new illnesses emerge when we change how we live

The world’s scientific community is focused on how to improve detection and responses to emerging diseases such as Zika virus and Ebola. So what can we learn from the most recent large-scale outbreaks?

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Earth Doesn't Get Weirder Than The Bubbling Springs Of Ethiopia

It might look like a drug-induced vision of hell, but for astrobiologists, the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia is heaven. With chlorine and sulfur vapor fogs hanging above its near-boiling, bubbling salty lakes, it is one of the least hospitable places in the world.

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Daytime cooking ban in India as heatwave claims 300 lives

Authorities try to prevent accidental fires amid scorching temperatures that have destroyed crops and killed livestock

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Kittens see / do things for the first time

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How Does An Owl Fly So Silently? - Super Powered Owls

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Are these the toughest people on earth?

The Afar people of Djibouti regularly face drought, volcanoes and earthquakes. So what's the secret to their survival?

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More than half a tonne of ancient Roman coins found in Spain

Construction workers in southern Spain unearth 600 kilograms of Roman coins stored inside clay jars. Six hundred kilograms of bronze coins were discovered inside 19 amphoras, some of them recovered broken.

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VW and Shell try to block EU push for electric cars

VW and Shell have united to try to block Europe’s push for electric cars and more efficient cars, saying biofuels should be at heart of efforts to green the industry instead. The EU is planning two new fuel efficiency targets for 2025 and 2030 to help meet promises made at the Paris climate summit last December. But executives from the two industrial giants launched a study on Wednesday night proposing greater use of biofuels...

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The Mundari: The tribe dying for their cows

Ankole-Wartusi cows are among the most prized in the South Sudan, and could fetch $500. For some, this means protecting them at all costs.

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Can a Cat Have an Existential Crisis?

When I first adopted Lucas nine years ago from a cat rescue organization in Washington, D.C., his name was Puck. Then, almost four years ago, my husband and I had a child. Lucas, no longer the most important small creature in the apartment, retreated to the top shelf of his cat tree, where he would lie all day, staring morosely over the edge.

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At a time of zealotry, Spinoza matters more than ever

At a time of religious zealotry, Spinoza’s fearless defence of intellectual freedom is more timely than ever

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The Tsaatan Reindeer Herders of Mongolia

Over thousands of years, the Tsaatan people have evolved an extraordinary and unique way of life, dependent both on their reindeer and the forests where they hunt. Today, the Tsaatan’s existence and traditional way of life is threatened by the dwindling number of their domesticated reindeer.

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Controversial tiger temple in Thailand gets zoo license

Activists say that they are “shocked and disgusted” by this latest development.

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I Was Wrong About the Limits of Solar; PV Is Becoming Dirt Cheap.

The price of solar power is falling faster than many thought was possible. Harvard’s David Keith comes honest with us about solar power: “Facts have changed. I was wrong.” The unsubsidized electricity cost from industrial-scale solar PV in the most favorable locations is now well below $40 per megawatt-hour and could very easily be below $20 per megawatt-hour by 2020. Compared to other new sources of supply, this would be the cheapest electricity on the planet.

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The Fascinating Local Color from Illegal NBA Playoff Streams

It's not legal, advisable or convenient, but you can learn alot about a place from its halftime shows.

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Baby boom for New Zealand’s extremely rare giant parrot

This year, 37 kakapo chicks have survived so far, making it the most successful breeding season for the bird in more than 20 years of conservation efforts, researchers say.

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The Extinction Invention

A genetic technology that can kill off mosquito species could eradicate malaria. But is it too risky to ever use?

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A natural wonder lost to a volcano has been rediscovered

The stunning terraces of New Zealand's Lake Rotomahana were obliterated by a volcanic eruption in 1886, but geologists have now found traces of them hidden at the bottom of the lake.

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Paleontologists Just Unearthed the Skull of a HUGE Newly Discovered Dinosaur

Can you imagine this thing walking the earth?!

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The Most Beautiful Tulip in History Cost as Much as a House

During the Netherlands' tulip bubble, the Semper Augustus was among the rarest and most valuable.

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Glaciers with a Flotilla of 'Ice Sails'

Rare and somewhat esoteric. These are the huge pyramids of ice that stand proud of the surface on some glaciers.

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The ancient copper mines dug by children

Thousands of years before the Industrial Revolution, people were mining for metal on an industrial scale.

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Scans Show 'Brain Dictionary' Groups Words By Meaning

Scientists say they have made an atlas of where words' meanings are located in the brain. The map shows that words are represented in different regions throughout the brain's outer layer. Moreover, the brains of different people map language in the same way. "These maps are remarkably consistent from person to person," says Jack Gallant, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley who led the study.

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Japanese Monks Recorded the Climate for 700 Years

Some of the oldest continuous historical records from around the world show us how dramatically the climate has changed.

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Punishing Heat Wave Sets Records Across Asia

Record-high temperatures and severe drought are causing misery for hundreds of millions of people in Asia.

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Why one species of dolphin has turned pink

Botos lurk, virtually unseen, in the huge rivers of South America - and they are the subject of an awful lot of wild speculation.

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No Brain? No Problem! Slime Mold Can Learn

Slime mold, a unicellular organism at the bottom of the food chain, can learn, a finding that has important implications for understanding the evolution of learning, as well as how many creatures can be 'smart' and successful without a brain.

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How the Other Fifth Lives

For years now, people have been talking about the insulated world of the top 1 percent of Americans, but the top 20 percent of the income distribution is also steadily separating itself — by geography and by education as well as by income. This self-segregation of a privileged fifth of the population is changing the American social order and the American political system.

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Can You Taste Where Your Water is From?

When water is purified, 'pixie dust' is added back in.

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NASA Responds to an S.O.S. of Historic Proportions

Rocket technology could save our (historic) structures from earthquakes.

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Tesla's battery sales this year to dwarf entire industry's sales in '15

Tesla will sell 168.5 megawatt-hours of behind-the-mete energy storage systems to SolarCity this year. That's more than six times what it sold to SolarCity in 2015 -- and 60% more than the entire market reported last year.

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Landscapes: Volume 4K

Dustin Farrell

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To Leave This Place

The Gosainkund trek is one of the most popular routes in the Himalayas, but what is it really like for trekkers and local businesses after the devastating 2015 earthquakes?

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6 Years After Gulf Oil Spill, Residents Demand ‘No More Drilling’

As the legal cases against BP draw to a close, the risks of offshore oil drilling — and public opposition to it — grow. By Antonia Juhasz. (Apr. 20)

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Graves of the Dead

The story of a mysterious mound, and what was inside.

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Dinosaur die-off not a result of volcanoes, new study says

A new study suggests that volcanic eruptions did not lead to the extinction of the dinosaurs, and also demonstrates that Earth's oceans are capable of absorbing large amounts of carbon dioxide—provided it is released gradually over an extremely long time. Scientists have long argued over the cause of the Cretaceous-Palaeogene extinction event, during which three-quarters of all plant and animal species, including the dinosaurs...

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Our Beleaguered Planet

The interaction of global climate change, poverty, affluence, and overpopulation. By Marcia Angell.

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A huge zinc surge accompanies the first spark of human life

The human egg has to be activated for an embryo to begin to develop. Now, researchers show that proper activation is accompanied by a large surge in zinc levels in the egg. This inorganic signature could be used to help IVF scientists predict which eggs will be the healthiest and most likely to be viable following implantation.

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Genetically Modified Mosquitoes: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

The Zika virus could open the door for a new era of gene-tweaking for pest control and disease prevention.

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Severe Weather Outbreak, Including Tornadoes, Expected Tuesday in Plains

April's dangerous reputation for severe weather will be on full display Tuesday.

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How a giant space umbrella could stop global warming

Our rapidly warming world could cause serious problems for civilisation in the decades to come. But could a giant space umbrella help cool down our planet? Zaria Gorvett investigates.

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What One Photographer Saw in Deer that Wander Down the Streets

Shika-Shika, a new photo collection by Yoko Ishii

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The Emerald Ash Borer Is Chewing Its Way Through Municipal Budgets

The emerald ash borer hitched a ride overseas on wooden shipping crates. Now it’s eating into municipal budgets.

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There's a Neolithic Sauna at Marden Henge!

An amazing discovery in Wiltshire is throwing a whole new light on the way we think henges might have been used in Neolithic Britain.

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A recipe for global cooling—put seafloor on dry land near the equator

Earth’s climate has stayed within a pretty narrow range of temperatures over its history if you compare it to the inhospitable heat and cold found elsewhere in our Solar System. This relative stability has been maintained by an intricate system of interactions. On geologic timescales, the chemical commerce between the atmosphere and the rock of Earth’s crust acts as a thermostat. The weathering of common minerals includes a reaction that removes...

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